11 Things You Didn’t Know About Dick’s Drive-In

You already know a lot about Dick's Drive-In (it's got cash machines now! It totally got hosed on a certain men's lifestyle site's best burgers in Seattle list. OMG it's crowded at 1:50am!), but you don't know everything, which is why we got the granddaughter of the guy who put the Dick in Dick's to help us come up with 11 things you don't know about what makes this iconic Northwest drive-in so... waitforit!... Special.

For the first 17 years, it was just (astonishingly cheap) hamburgers, cheeseburgers, fries, shakes, and ice cream.
 

But the food service industry is sink or swim, and despite what you might expect, Gil’s -- a fish & chips shop -- couldn't do the latter and had to close.

It's a steer. Dick's uses their meat because it's generally considered superior to cow or bull or whatever, and they tend to take it easy on condiments, so flavor stands out.
 

Dude gave the then-California-only burger joint $50 so he could work the line and, in the name of research, invented a compensation model Mickey D's has been working toward ever since.

That's the last time they changed the menu... and the last time they offered up the orange soda once kept in these wonderfully round receptacles.

Possibly adding to the confusion -- one of Dick’s co-founders, Dr. B.O.A. Thomas, was a professor of dentistry at the University of Washington and lauded periodontist.

Dude wanted to hit "Taco Bell for some Mexican eatin'", but it was closed (now permanently), so he and his posse hit the Cap Hill location -- something a slew of subsequent Seattle rappers, from Macklemore to Blue Scholars, have also done in their music videos.

Apparently nobody knew that, 'cause it closed in 1973 (the only one of Dick's locations to do so). And no, there isn't a Dick's in Spokane... err, well, there is, but it's a whole different drive-in-style fast-food joint famous for its cheeseburgers.

This is the very first "Malt Boy", whose milkshakes presumably brought all the girls to the yard... err, parking lot, and who went on to be an international ballet star.
 

Sure, a lot of people already knew that. But YOU didn't, 'cause you don't watch that kind of stuff, right? Right?! What not many people know is that Seattle PI reporters, a local radio host, and a former Alaska governor (the one before Palin!) did too.

Nowadays -- especially when you're there crushing Deluxes around 2am -- they prefer to have absolutely no lines whatsoever.

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