The Rise of the American Drive-Thru: From Burgers to Funerals

No other country does drive-thru like the United States. When car ownership soared in the mid-20th century, Americans found ways to run everyday errands without ever leaving the driver's seat. Drive-thru banks, pharmacies and restaurants made consumers feel like they’d stepped into the future.

Coming out of World War II, “technological progress was really attractive to consumers," explains Marcia Chatelain, author of Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America. "They were dazzled and excited by mechanisms of design and efficiency because it indicated innovation."

“All these amazing machines were making everyday life quicker and easier,” says Adam Chandler, author of Drive-Thru Dreams: A Journey Through the Heart of America's Fast-Food Kingdom. “The drive-thru speaks to the American ideal of choosing your own destiny.”

But how exactly did America become so devoted to the drive-thru?

The practice of street vendors serving food to customers from carts dates back centuries. In Ancient Rome, ready-to-eat food and drink like hearty stews, honey cakes and spiced wine were sold from street-side restaurants called thermopolia.

Before the drive-thru, Americans embraced drive-in restaurants in the '20s and '30s. Drivers parked their cars outside of an establishment and servers roller-skated or walked up to the car to take orders and deliver meals. Food often arrived on trays that could be clipped onto open car windows. The first drive-in restaurant is believed to be Kirby’s Pig Stand on the Dallas-Fort Worth Highway in 1921. 

"Drive-ins gave people the opportunity to use their cars as a dining space,” explains Chatelain. “Consumers patronized it because it was incredibly efficient to not have to maintain a dining room.”

It wasn’t until after World War II, when car purchases and suburbanization surged, that the drive-thru was pioneered, explains Chandler. 

In 1947, Red’s Giant Hamburg, widely credited as the first drive-thru restaurant, opened on Route 66 in Springfield, Missouri. “Fast food and driving became so linked because more and more people were traveling and using the interstate highway,” says Chatelain. “These are places where travelers can stop and rest. They are really critical to the traveling experience.” 

It was in sunny California, where Route 66 concludes, that the drive-thru became widespread. “California has the roads, cars and year-round climate that was really good for the drive-thru,” says Chandler. 

In 1948, In-N-Out Burger was the first restaurant to use a two-way intercom for drive-thru orders. By 1951, drive-thru restaurants were so popular that when Jack in the Box launched in Southern California, it only offered drive-thru service.

As car culture expanded in the 1950s, Americans grew more reliant on their vehicles for work, errands, leisure and socializing. Drive-thrus exploded in popularity.

“This is a way to get through a transaction very quickly,” says Chandler. "The drive-thru is the natural upshot of prosperity, the baby boom, the birth of the suburbs, car culture and people trying to do everything at once."

More restaurants opened up drive-thru windows because it streamlined their operations. “It meant they needed fewer employees, as they didn’t need servers. Plus, customers were cleaning up the equivalent of their plates, cups and silverware,” says Chandler. “That meant they could also keep the food cheaper.”

Although now associated with drive-thru culture, McDonald’s didn't open their first window until January 24, 1975. The first McDonald's drive-thru in Sierra Vista, Arizona, was such a success that by the end of the 1970s, half of their locations had drive-thru windows. 

“In the late 1980s, drive-thrus over[took] dining meals at fast food restaurants,” says Chandler. “Now, 65 to 70 percent of all fast food restaurants that have drive-thrus do their business through their drive window rather than in person.”

Americans became so attached to their cars that many interesting and unusual businesses opened up windows. The first drive-thru bank even predated Red's Giant Hamburg. The Exchange National Bank opened 10 bulletproof drive-up teller windows with automatic sliding drawers in Chicago's Loop on November 12, 1946.

Pharmacies also became part of the drive-thru craze. Gary Clinton believes he was the first to open up a window at a drugstore in 1971 in Norman, Oklahoma. In addition to picking up medicine, people could get film developed. In the early 1990s, Walgreens popularized their pharmacy’s use of the drive-thru. 

In September 1955, The Cooper Still in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, opened up the first drive-in liquor store. Drive-thru liquor stores—sometimes known as beer barns—emerged across the South and Midwest in the following years. Customers could stay in their cars as beer, kegs and other booze were loaded into their vehicle. 

In 1981, a daiquiri drive-thru was created in Lafayette, Louisiana. Servers got around open container laws by taping a straw over the cup, which technically meant the container was unopened. 

Even churches and mortuaries embraced the drive-thru. Owens Funeral Home in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, launched drive-thru funeral viewings in 1963. In Compton, California, Robert L. Adams Mortuary popularized the idea further with their drive-thru viewing in 1974. Their setup allowed mourners to sign a guestbook, drop off cards and pay their respects, all without leaving their cars. 

Las Vegas became especially famous for its drive-thru weddings. The Little White Wedding Chapel first offered the service in 1951. Jennifer Lopez and Britney Spears are just two of the famous faces to have exchanged vows there. 

“The drive-thru becomes a shorthand for frivolousness,” says Chatelain.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, drive-thrus found a new purpose. Hospitals, pharmacies and public health agencies used them to administer coronavirus tests, limiting the spread of the virus. Many of those sites later became drive-thru vaccination clinics.

While drive-thru construction had started to plateau before 2020—some cities even restricted or banned new drive-thrus—the COVID-19 pandemic reversed that trend. As restaurants, pharmacies and retailers adapted to social distancing, drive-thrus became a way to serve customers while minimizing person-to-person contact.

Today, the drive-thru remains an American institution that reflects the nation's love of car culture, technology and convenience.