Dick's Drive-In, or simply Dick's, is a fast-food

Fast food

Fast food is the term given to food that can be prepared and served very quickly. While any meal with low preparation time can be considered to be fast food, typically the term refers to food sold in a restaurant or store with preheated or precooked ingredients, and served to the customer in a...

 restaurant chain located in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1954, Dick's is Seattle’s oldest, continuously operating fast-food restaurant. Dick's has, according to the Puget Sound Business Journal

Puget Sound Business Journal

The Puget Sound Business Journal is a weekly American City Business Journals publication containing articles about business people, issues, and events in the greater Seattle, Washington area. The publication also publishes a technology news website named TechFlash...

, attained status as a Seattle icon.

History

Founders Dick Spady, H. Warren Ghormley, and Dr. B. O. A. Thomas opened the first Dick's in 1954 in Seattle's Wallingford neighborhood, on N.E. 45th Street. In 1955, a second Dick's was opened in Seattle's Capitol Hill district. This was followed by a third in 1960 in the Ballard

Ballard, Seattle

Ballard is a neighborhood located in the northwestern part of Seattle, Washington. To the north it is bounded by Crown Hill, ; to the east by Greenwood, Phinney Ridge and Fremont ; to the south by the Lake Washington Ship Canal; and to the west by Puget Sound’s Shilshole Bay. The neighborhood’s...

 neighborhood, a 4th in 1963 in Lake City, a fifth in Queen Anne in 1974. In September 2010, it was announced that Dick's was planning on opening a new sixth location in the Seattle area and that an online poll on their website would determine the new location. After a few weeks of polling, the area north of Seattle won the right for a new Dick's Drive-In. On October 15, 2010, Dick's officials announced the new location to be in Edmonds on the corner of Hwy 99 and 220th St. All but the Queen Anne location are without customer seating. The Queen Anne location has indoor tables and no drive-in. The restaurants only accept cash; there are no ways to use electronic forms of payment.

The simple menu has changed little over time. It features fast-food staples such as hamburger

Hamburger

A hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat usually placed inside a sliced bread roll...

s, hand-cut french fries

French fries

French fries , chips, fries, or French-fried potatoes are strips of deep-fried potato. North Americans tend to refer to any pieces of deep-fried potatoes as fries or French fries, while in the United Kingdom, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand, long, thinly cut slices of deep-fried potatoes are...

, and individually made milkshake

Milkshake

A milkshake is a sweet, cold beverage which is made from milk, ice cream or iced milk, and flavorings or sweeteners such as fruit syrup or chocolate sauce....

s. Dick's is particularly well known for the "Dick's Special," which includes lettuce

Lettuce

Lettuce is a temperate annual or biennial plant of the daisy family Asteraceae. It is most often grown as a leaf vegetable. It is eaten either raw, notably in salads, sandwiches, hamburgers, tacos, and many other dishes, or cooked, as in Chinese cuisine in which the stem becomes just as important...

, mayonnaise

Mayonnaise

Mayonnaise, , often abbreviated as mayo, is a sauce. It is a stable emulsion of oil, egg yolk and either vinegar or lemon juice, with many options for embellishment with other herbs and spices. Lecithin in the egg yolk is the emulsifier. Mayonnaise varies in color but is often white, cream, or pale...

, and chopped pickle

Pickled cucumber

A pickled cucumber is a cucumber that has been pickled in a brine, vinegar, or other solution and left to ferment for a period of time, by either immersing the cucumbers in an acidic solution or through souring by lacto-fermentation.-Gherkin:A gherkin is not only...

s; and the "Dick's Deluxe," a quarter-pound version of the Special, with cheese

Cheese

Cheese is a generic term for a diverse group of milk-based food products. Cheese is produced throughout the world in wide-ranging flavors, textures, and forms....

. These burgers were added in 1971. Cashiers do not accept variations on the burger's preparation, or omissions such as asking for the burger without lettuce, but will serve the Deluxe without cheese.

For several years Dick's has promoted benefits offered to employees such as 401K, medical coverage, and a college tuition scholarship.

In popular culture

• Seattle rapper, Sir Mix-a-Lot
  Sir Mix-a-Lot
  Anthony Ray , better known by his stage name Sir Mix-a-Lot, is an emcee and producer based in Seattle, Washington. The founder of the Nastymix record label, he debuted in 1988 with Swass...
  
  , identifies the Capitol Hill location of Dick's in his song, Posse on Broadway
  Posse On Broadway
  Posse on Broadway is a Hip Hop song first recorded by Sir Mix-a-Lot on his 1988 debut album Swass.The Broadway in the song is not New York City's famed thoroughfare, but the Seattle street of the same name in the Capitol Hill district .The geography of the song is quite specific, going north up...
  
  .
• Gianna Michaels
  Gianna Michaels
  Gianna Michaels is an American pornographic actress.- Life and career :Michaels was born in Seattle, Washington. Her first job was at a hamburger restaurant in Seattle called Dick's Drive-In. After being approached about modelling, she eventually tried it, figuring that if she did not like it, she...
  
  , a pornographic actress
  Pornographic actor
  A pornographic actor/actress or a porn star is a person who appears in pornographic film. Most actors appear nude in films...
  
  , was once an employee.
• In The Presidents of the United States of America
  The Presidents of the United States of America (band)
  The Presidents of the United States of America, commonly referred to as Pot USA or "PUSA" or The Presidents, are a twice Grammy-nominated American alternative rock band. The band formed in Seattle, USA, in 1993. The three-piece group currently comprises vocalist and "basitarist" Chris Ballew,...
  
  's song "Little Indian Princess", the Seattle natives mention wanting to "spend my loose change on a fist-sized ice cream cone at Dick's."

Locations

• Wallingford
• Capitol Hill
• Ballard
• Lake City
• Lower Queen Anne
• Edmonds (Opened on October 20, 2011)
• Bellevue (now closed)

It should be noted that there is a Dick's Drive-In http://www.yelp.com/biz/dicks-hamburgers-spokane in Spokane

Spokane, Washington

Spokane is a city located in the Northwestern United States in the state of Washington. It is the largest city of Spokane County of which it is also the county seat, and the metropolitan center of the Inland Northwest region...

. Although this drive-in is operated in much the same manner as the Dick's Drive-Ins in Seattle (Spokane's Dick's offers a few more menu items), this Spokane drive-in is not affiliated with the Dick's Drive-Ins of Seattle.

External links

• Official web site
• SeattleWiki:Dick's Drive-In Restaurants