Lake City Dick’s Drive-In to Reopen April 5 Repairs on-track after crash damages historic restaurant

CONTACT: Carrie Shaw
(425) 344-1787
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, April 1, 2010

Seattle – One of Seattle’s famed Dick’s Drive-In Restaurants plans to reopen for business Monday, April 5 during regular hours from 10:30 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. The Lake City Dick’s, 12325 30th Ave N., Seattle, closed for repairs after sustaining damage when a car crashed into the front of the restaurant on Thursday, March 25. No customers or employees were injured during the crash.

“We’re eager and excited to start serving our Lake City customers once again,” says Jim Spady, vice president for Dick’s Drive-In Restaurants, and son of Dick’s co-founder and namesake Dick Spady. “There has been an outpouring of support and we are grateful for such loyal employees and customers who care about the life of the restaurant. It truly is a place to connect for the community.” Spady added that employees have continued to receive their regular pay and benefits during the restaurant’s closure. “There is a strong sense of family for our employees, and this is just about supporting each other during the ups and downs of life,” Spady says.

This is the second longest closure of a Dick’s restaurant in the history of the company. The Lake City Dick’s also closed in October of 1968 for 4 weeks after a fire broke out in the French fry cooker. Last week’s crash damaged the front counter, broke windows, and smashed the original tile on the front wall.

The Lake City restaurant is one of four Dick’s Drive-Ins designed by local architect Raymond H. Peck. The Lake City drive-in opened in 1963 to serve the ever-expanding suburbs of Seattle with their baby-boom families. “The 1950s architecture is an important part of the Dick’s iconic brand,” says Spady, “our repairs to the Lake City drive-in will preserve that nostalgic architecture.”

###