EVERETT — The fries, the shakes, the Deluxe.
Dick’s Drive-In, the iconic Seattle burger joint, may be building a new restaurant in south Snohomish County — the first Dick’s in 36 years. If enough people persuade it to, that is.
The news broke Monday after Jim Spady, the son of Dick’s co-founder Dick Spady, announced a contest to pick the location of the new restaurant.
Spady said the company wants to stay within a 20-mile radius of the University of Washington. He mentioned Lynnwood, Bothell, Mountlake Terrace, Edmonds and south Everett as possibilities in this county.
People here can’t stop their salivary glands from draining at the thought.
“I’d probably pack on a couple of pounds for sure,” said Elden Chapman, a 24-year-old who has put away four Dick’s cheeseburgers, fries and a vanilla milkshake at a single sitting.
Dick’s officials want customers to cast their votes on their website, www.ddir.com. People can vote for general areas — north, south and east.
By Tuesday, the restaurant’s website had crashed after it was inundated with more than 15,000 visits. People also swamped Dick’s Facebook page, virtually shouting out possible locations for a restaurant as far away as Arizona, Texas and Missouri.
“We’re really overwhelmed and honored and humbled by the response,” Jim Spady said.
The first Dick’s opened in 1954 in the Wallingford neighborhood, one of the first fast food joints in Seattle. Burgers cost 19 cents, fries 11 cents and shakes 21 cents. During the next 20 years, the company opened a total of six restaurants in the Seattle area, the last at the bottom of Queen Anne Hill. One restaurant in Bellevue didn’t make it.
Dick’s built goodwill in the community by offering higher-than-average wages for a fast food restaurant, generous employee benefits and college scholarships.
The restaurant also became a local favorite because the menu hasn’t changed much since the 1950s, Spady said. The beef is fresh, the milkshakes are handmade and workers still cut the potatoes into fries.
The restaurants themselves are a throwback to the 1950s drive-in, down to the neon and the walk-up counters.
Spady said the new restaurant would be a drive-in modeled after Dick’s flagship restaurant in Wallingford, in all its orange glory.
The company is scouting locations now and expects to make a decision in about a month.
The restaurant could be open in late 2011.
In this county, the initial reaction was gluttonous glee. The restaurant has a large and loyal base of customers.
Jaci LeGore Hodgins of Marysville explained Dick’s appeal this way: “It’s the best cheeseburger in Seattle, and, of course, the price is right.”
She’s the head coach of the Marysville-Pilchuck High School girls’ swim team. The self-described “Dick’s groupie” takes her athletes to the restaurant as a special treat a few times a season, a tradition that spans years. It’s also a carrot — albeit a deep-fried one — for 10,000 yards of swimming a day, she said.
“It’s a big deal, it’s the way we celebrate,” she said.
Erin Clark, 22, of Everett, developed a once-a-week Dick’s Drive-In habit after she took a job in the Seattle.
“It’s delicious and super cheap,” she said. “And you are just like, dang, I love Dick’s.”
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