An Ode to California’s Landmark Drive-Ins, RESY 2021

 

Some of my earliest restaurant memories come from Vicky’s Burritos. Vicky’s is a Mexican-American eatery in my hometown of Sacramento that only had a walk-up window, and it specialized in first generation Mexican American classics like Hot Pork Chicana. The deep, crimson, hellfire broth was so spicy I could hear my teenage tastebuds sizzling. But, the tender papas and large chunks of pork wrapped up in a charred tortilla beckoned me for more punishment.

That walk-up window was my savior most mornings as the only food option in what would eventually be coined a “food desert” two decades later. And I don’t remember ever seeing a face; just a salty voice and a foil-wrapped burrito at the end of a phantom arm extended out of the walk-up window.

Landmark drive-ins, especially those with walk-up windows, have always been my preference when dining out. I’d much rather sit under a shady tree and eat off the hood of my car than sit inside, and I’ve always wondered why so many of our landmark drive-ins were going the way of the dinosaur, and 2020 just heightened that inquiry because they were built for a pandemic that placed emphasis on social distancing.

Like so many Americans during the pandemic, I set out on the road to clear my head. It was also to keep my mother from going to her so-called “dark place” after the pandemic put the kibosh on all of her social activities.

Our day trips became a weekly thing where we’d visit farms, farm stands, and the few remaining NorCal landmark drive-ins that offered a walk-up window or drive-thru. Starting with a historic local landmark a mile down the road from our home, the Village Drive-In.