Dick’s Drive-In, the Seattle burger-and-fries institution, announced Monday that it will open its seventh location — somewhere either east or south of its current restaurants. Dick’s will hold an online vote to pick the spot.
It took 37 years for Dick’s Drive-In to expand from five locations to six. It won’t take nearly that long to go from six to seven.
Dick’s, Seattle’s homegrown hamburger, French fry and milkshake institution, will open a new location, likely sometime next year.
The local chain will hold an online vote — just as it did in 2010 — to choose the site of its next location, which will be either south or east of its current restaurants. When it held the vote in 2010, north won the polling and a Dick’s opened in Edmonds in 2011.
“We promised our customers that we would continue to expand east and south if our north location was a success,” said Jim Spady, president of Dick’s Drive-Ins and the son of Dick Spady, the restaurants’ founder and namesake who died last year at age 92. “We’re very happy to ask our customers to again help us decide where we build next.”
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Voting will be open for about three weeks, and folks who want a Dick’s near them can go to Dick’s website, www.ddir.com, to pick their choice.
Dick’s has five Seattle locations — Wallingford, which opened in 1954, Broadway (1955), Holman Road (1960), Lake City (1963) and Queen Anne (1974 and the only sit-down location) — as well as the Edmonds restaurant.
When the Wallingford location opened, burgers cost 19 cents and fries went for 11 cents. Prices have risen since then, but not much. A burger goes for $1.40, fries for $1.75 and a Dick’s Deluxe — two patties with melted cheese, lettuce, mayo and relish — for $3.10.
“It shouldn’t be just Seattle kids, like my two young sons, who have their first French fry at Dick’s,” said Jasmine Donovan, Dick’s vice president and Dick Spady’s granddaughter.