Seattle's Dick's Drive-In to launch food truck this November

What’s better than a late-night stop at Seattle’s beloved burger drive-in? A drive-in that, quite literally, drives to you.

It’s official: Dick’s Drive-In will soon launch a food truck in the Seattle area, and it’s up to you to decide which neck of the woods it starts doling out deluxe burgers and hand-whipped milkshakes in first.

Expected to begin rolling about the Seattle area this November, Seattleites can vote for which neighborhood nabs the truck first here. Not to worry, though, because eventually Dick's hopes to reach the entire region for those who don't have easy access to their seven restaurants spread across Edmonds, Kent and Seattle.

The truck will dish out all of its iconic menu items except that of the fries – substituted with chips for the time being.

“When we built our restaurants in Edmonds and Kent, our customers helped us decide where those restaurants should be,” Jasmine Donovan, president of Dick’s Drive-In told KOMO News. “And while it takes over a year to build each new restaurant, with the food truck, we can reach customers all over the Puget Sound region beginning this fall.”

Fittingly, the truck is currently under construction in the food truck capitol of Portland – hopefully taking to the Seattle streets in mid-November.

The history of Dick’s rising popularity dates back to Jan. 28, 1954, when the first Dick’s Drive-In opened for business on N.E. 45th St. in Wallingford.

To put things in perspective, the same year Salk perfected the polio vaccine, and Hemmingway won the Nobel Prize for Literature. As a young Elvis sang his first great hits, Dick’s Drive-In became the place in Seattle to meet your friends, show off Mom and Dad’s new car or just trade pocket change for a quick bite.

To this day, the same location and an expansion of many other Dick’s outposts across the Emerald City continuously dole out some of Seattle’s favorite cheap eats – oftentimes boasting lengthy lines of Seattleites willing to trade a few minutes in the rain for a Dick's Deluxe burger.

Keeping Dick’s a local business and keeping the menu simple has always been part of the Dick’s philosophy, and likely part of its longtime success across Seattle. While other fast-food restaurants added fish sandwiches, onion rings, tacos and chicken, Dick’s stayed with the American classics: burgers, fries and shakes.

In fact, the menu didn’t change for 20 years. Then in 1971, a mild revolution occurred as two new burgers were added to the menu: the Dick’s Special with lettuce, mayonnaise and chopped pickles, and the Dick’s Deluxe, a beefed-up, quarter-pound special with cheese. About the same time, Dick’s dropped orange soda and added diet Coke. But that’s been just about it.

Other than the incoming food truck, of course. Another first for Dick’s.

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