The drive-in restaurant craze began in 1921 with Kirby’s Pig Stand in Dallas, Texas. As car ownership increased, so too did the popularity of drive-ins and in 1947, the first drive-in came to San Francisco, CA. Mel Weiss and Harold Dobbs opened the first Mel’s Drive-In at 140 South Van Ness Avenue. California’s warm

This vintage find is an interesting piece of restaurant equipment picked up at Antiques USA in Arundel, Maine. It’s a countertop barbecue sandwich warmer, made about 1951. From advertisements and trade articles discovered online, it appears that this food service machine was a popular invention in the 1950s.     Manufactured by Helmco, Inc. of

From the late ’40s to the mid-80s, locals and tourists to San Francisco and Oakland, California, enjoyed local fare from a classic diner. The first Doggie Diner opened in Oakland (on San Pablo Ave) during WWII. Founder Al Ross grew the small chain to 30 diners, the bulk of them in San Francisco. In the

I love the traditional diner. I also grew up old school—even in the ’80s I worked at a small-town “real” diner as a cook. You know, where the waitresses jot down orders on tickets, which then get clipped to a rail or spindle? And it was all in shorthand. As a cook, you had to