Yakima’s Miner’s Drive-In Has Been Serving Incredible Burgers for 77 Years | Eater Seattle
"Opened on April 9, 1948 by Ed and Irene Miner with the help of their 16‑year‑old son, Lee, this drive‑thru on First Street at the edge of Yakima’s Valley Mall was the city’s first drive‑thru restaurant and remains a central late‑night anchor. The interior is described as "all shiny brown wood and stained glass lampshades, little pictures embossed on those lampshades of tomatoes and grapes on the vine cut into portraiture," with a soft‑orange logo in big blocky text on plastic cups and neon that reads like Old West signage. The soundscape and atmosphere are frenetic: fryers blitzing breaded chicken, big pools of oil bubbling parades of fries, orders called out and passed between staff in red‑and‑black uniforms, strawberry milkshakes slurped, and stained foil balled up by greasy fingers. The menu is unapologetically classic American fast food: the titanic Big Miner Burgers and chili cheese fries are "meaty, oozing, and weighty," teriyaki burgers figure in late‑night runs, and a salad bar station was added in 2000; the chili cheese fries are recalled as "titanic" and "heartburn‑inducing." Cars still snake through the drive‑thru (there are seven huge Pepsi‑branded menus in the lane alone), and even through COVID—when supply‑chain issues made beef and foil bags hard to source and lines swelled to "rarely fewer than 20 to 30 cars"—the operation kept running. Local lore claims the McDonald brothers visited in the restaurant’s infancy and took inspiration from its setup; "it's probably not true, but, like Mulder, Washingtonians want to believe." A mid‑1950s tradition began when the founder fed a high‑school coach for free; coaches still eat free to this day, the business sponsors teams and sporting events, and super‑late hours (usually 8:30 a.m. to 2 a.m., and until 3:30 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays) make it a time‑tested post‑game destination for teens. Family continuity and long tenures among staff reinforce the feeling of sameness: manager David Miner, grandson of Ed and Irene, says the business has "barely changed," and that "We don't want to scare customers away. People come here expecting things to stay the same." Head manager Al Louis has worked there 30 years since he was a 17‑year‑old dishwasher. The city around it even mounted a sign calling itself "the Palm Springs of Washington" (put up by a guy named Gary in 1987); when asked in 2013, Gary said, "We have a lot of sunshine over here," though one Seattle visitor observed, "I’ve been to Palm Springs, it looks nothing like Yakima." As the current manager puts it, "We’re busier than ever. So why change something that’s not broke?" - Paolo Bicchieri
