Recently I have noticed several people online talking about a restaurant that
I thought was a long dead chain of eateries. Dog n Suds® is a name that
some of us remember from the late 1950's thru the 1980's. Dog n Suds® was a
chain of drive-up hamburger and hot dog diners that dotted small towns all over
the Midwest.
If you were lucky enough to have one in your
hometown, which I was, you had a
great place to eat, hang out with friends on a hot summer night, and a place to
see some of the hot rod cars that ruled the streets in town at night when the
cruisers were out driving around.
Dog n Suds® was the "in" place to be when it was at it's height of
popularity. They served some of the best fast food around. Some of the items on
their menu include:
Dog n Suds® was most famous for their own brand of Root Beer. You
would drive in and park in a space. Right outside the car window was a menu
board that displayed all of the food items they sold. Parking spots went almost
all of the way around the building, forming a horse shoe type parking lot. In
the middle of the horse shoe was a grassy area with picnic tables in case you
chose not to eat in your car. Once you ordered your food the carhops would bring
your meal out to your car on a tray. Some of
the carhops delivered the food to you while they were on roller
skates. The food tray would rest on your window. If you ordered a root
beer, it came in a ice cold frosted Dog n Suds® trademarked mug.
If you went on a weekend sometimes they would have a live
band playing in the
area between the rows of cars. Once a month, the Dog n Suds® in our town
would have a hot rod night. The gearheads would bring their
high performance and custom
cars into the Dog n Suds® all shined up and ready to show. You could
almost taste the excitement as you would hear the muscle cars revving their
motors up as they drove thru the parking lot. It was a fun time for those who
were lucky enough to get a parking spot.
In the early 1980's most of the Dog n Suds® drive-ins closed, and
either became a mom and pop restaurant or another type of drive-in like
Sonic®.
If you were lucky, a store in your town still carries Dog n Suds® root
beer in a bottle. Stores all over America carry Dog n Suds® root beer
now, but the restaurants were very far and few between. Recently more and more
people are eating out at drive-up restaurants. Chains such as Checkers®, Sonic®,
Rally's® and a few others have caused a resurgence in the drive-ins around the
country. Dog n Suds® drive-ins have been popping up all over America,
and are once again becoming very popular with the teenagers, and the old timers
like me
who used to visit them. If you have a chance to stop by one, you will not be
disappointed if you do.
Source: Dog n Suds. 27 Jul 2004 <http://www.dognsuds.org>.