| Industry | Restaurant |
|---|---|
| Genre | Diner |
| Founded | 1947; 78 years ago (1947) inSan Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Founder | Mel Weiss andHarold Dobbs |
Area served | California, Nevada |
| Website | melsdrive-in originalmels |
Mel's Drive-In refers to two American restaurant chains, the successors of a chain founded in 1947 by Mel Weiss andHarold Dobbs inSan Francisco, California. The original chain operated until the 1970s. A new generation of Mel's Drive-In restaurants then began opening in the 1980s, with the business split into two separate groups: one doing business under the original Mel's Drive-In name and the other under the nameOriginal Mels.
Mel's Drive-In became closely associated with the 1973 filmAmerican Graffiti after one of its restaurants was used as a filming location. The film's distributor,Universal Studios, licensed the Mel's Drive-In brand to recreate the restaurants in itsUniversal theme parks.
The signage and menus on the original Mel's Diners did not have a possessive apostrophe in the name, as would be expected. However, Universal Studios opted to include the apostrophe in all Mel's Drive-In signage, literature, and media.
The first Mel's Drive-In was founded in 1947 by Mel Weiss andHarold Dobbs inSan Francisco, California. It later expanded to several other locations.
After the last of the original restaurants closed in the 1970s, Weiss's son Steven Weiss and partner Donald Wagstaff opened the first of a new generation of Mel's Drive-In restaurants in 1985.[1] A family rift between father and son caused them to part ways and form two chains, with Steven retaining the "Mel's Drive-In" name and Mel calling his restaurants "Original Mels". The elder Weiss then sold his company in 1994.[2] The Original Mels locations are not listed on the official Mel's Drive-In website, and vice versa.
As of 2025[update], the next generation Mel's Drive-In chain has eight locations, four in San Francisco and four in theLos Angeles Area.[3] Some Mel's Drive-In locations are not drive-ins but rather diners. For example, while founded in San Francisco, none of the locations in the city currently serve food to patrons' cars.
The location nearDowntown San Francisco, rechristened "Mel's Kitchen", has gone upscale, serving $12 cocktails, $16 burgers with locally sourced beef, ahi poke, acai smoothies, and avocado toast.[4][5][6][7] That site was almost demolished in 2018 to build housing.[8]
All four locations in the Los Angeles area are housed in historic buildings. Mel's Drive-In in theSherman Oaks neighborhood ofLos Angeles was built as Kerry's coffee shop in 1953. Thegoogie style building was designed byArmet & Davis. Mel's Drive-In inWest Hollywood was built asBen Frank's in 1962. The googie style building was designed by Lane & Schlick. Mel's Drive-In inHollywood is located in a portion of the formerMax Factor makeup studio designed by theater architect S. Charles Lee. TheHollywood Regency style building was designed byS. Charles Lee and built in 1935. The Mel's Drive-In inSanta Monica was built as The Penguin in 1958. The googie style building was designed byArmet & Davis.[9][10][11][12]
The Original Mels chain has 22 locations across Northern California and Nevada.[13] There are some Northern California locations that share the same generalAmerican Graffiti nostalgia theme and the similarly styled Mel's logo.
Starting on October 16, 1963, the Ad Hoc Committee to End Discrimination organized pickets and sit-ins at the Mel's Drive-In locations in San Francisco,Oakland, andBerkeley[14] over the fact that while the restaurant would serve food toAfrican Americans and hired them as cooks, they were not allowed to work "up front" where they could be seen by white customers. More than 100 protesters were arrested. The picketing ended when Harold Dobbs, Mel's Drive-In co-founder who was serving as aSan Francisco City supervisor at the time, settled with the protesters and began to allow black workers upfront.[15]
In 1972, the restaurant was selected as a feature location byGeorge Lucas for his1973 filmAmerican Graffiti. The Mel's used was located at 140 South Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco.[16] It serves as the setting for the opening scene of the film as well as the backdrop for the opening credits, accompanied on the soundtrack byBill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock”.
The prominent play given to the location has been credited with having saved the company from possibly going out of business.[citation needed] Signage and artwork from the Mel's chain are frequently used in marketing for the film.
Universal Studios has built replica Mel's Drive-In restaurants, resembling the one featured inAmerican Graffiti, attheir theme parks inHollywood,Orlando,Japan,Beijing, andSingapore.
Prior toAmerican Graffiti, Mel's was used as a location in the 1967 filmGuess Who's Coming to Dinner.Spencer Tracy andKatharine Hepburn are out for a drive, and Tracy pulls into Mel's and orders Oregon boysenberry ice cream; he then has a minor traffic altercation with a black man. The Mel's was located in the Excelsior district of San Francisco. Hepburn and Tracy never actually visited the location.
Mel's restaurants have since been featured in other media, such asMelrose Place (1996, Season 5, Episode 1),Doonesbury comics (December 18, 1989), and the bookThe American Drive-in by Mike Witzel.
The address for the Mel's Drive-In location in West Hollywood is listed at the bottom of the signed headshots found in the VIP packages for the band Ghost's "A Pale Tour Named Death".
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