On the Road in America - 500 Places for Food and Wine Lovers - page 236

Diners & Drive-Ins

258

Don's Drive-In
Baby, You Can Drive My Car
Traverse City, Michigan

Though it's 242 miles (390km) from
Detroit—way up at the top of Lower Mich-
igan's mitten—Don's Drive-In is still a love
song to the American automobile. You can
see it everywhere, from the tail-finned
sedan pictured on its brash neon road sign
to the car-shaped cardboard containers
that the kids' meals are delivered in.
It's not as if Traverse City doesn't have
plenty of its own attractions—it does,
from boutique shopping, wineries, and a
vibrant arts scene to spectacular Lake
Michigan beaches and the justly famous
local cherries (Don's does feature Traverse
City cherries in its thick creamy milk-
shakes). But when Don's first opened on
this lakeshore highway in 1958, America
was infatuated with the burgeoning car
culture and dazzled by the promise of
Eisenhower's new interstate highway sys-
tem; this hot-pink roadside restaurant still
reflects that moment in time.
Don's is one of the few drive-ins in
America that still has carhop service, right
down to the post speakers mounted by
each parking spot where drivers can
phone in their order to the kitchen. Car-
hops deliver the food on vintage trays that
hook onto your car window. The inside
dining room is somewhat more self-con-
sciously retro, with hubcaps and vinyl
records slapped on the walls, a gigantic
jukebox against one wall, black-and-white
tiled floors, red vinyl booths, and cherry-
red swirled Formica topping the tables.

Don't expect a sparkling Johnny Rockets-
style rehab, though—this half-century-old
drive-in sometimes shows its age around
the edges.
There's nothing cutesy about the house
specialty, the Big D Burger—a half-
pounder consisting of hand-shaped pat-
ties of fresh ground beef broiled to a
sizzled crust and topped with all the mus-
tard, onions, mushrooms, bacon, and
cheese you desire. (That kind of gustatory
excess would have been unheard-of in
1958.) But where Don's really shines is
with its utterly delectable milkshakes,
which come in a range of flavors with
chunks of real fruit.
“Quaint” is an odd adjective to apply to
a busy, bright place like Don's, especially
given the unabashedly greasy nature of its
fast-food offerings: Onion rings and french
fries and foot-long chili dogs don't belong
at a “quaint” eatery. No, Don's just is what
it is—a local institution that has been feed-
ing folks, and feeding them well, for a very
long time.

2030 U.S. 31 North ( & 231/938-1860 ).
( Cherry Capital Airport, Traverse City
(7 miles/11km).
L $$$ Tamarack Lodge, 2035 U.S.
31 N ( & 877/938-9744; www.tamarack
lodgetc.com). $$ Traverse Bay Inn, 2300
U.S. 31 N ( & 800/968-2646 or 231/938-
2646; www.traversebayhotels.com).