By Marisa Loranger, News Editor.
Many kids who’ve grown up in Saginaw remember sitting at the counter of Old Town Drive-In and drinking a root beer float after school. With nostalgia being a staple of today’s culture, Old Town Drive-In takes customers back to a different era.
Old Town Drive-In was once an A&W in the 1940s – one of the very first A&Ws to come around. In 1982, due to A&W changing their standards, such as wanting larger buildings and getting rid of curb side service, the building became Old Town Drive-In.
Changing the name of the business didn’t change the restaurant’s staple items. Hot dogs, root beer and coney sauce have stayed the same as they did in the ‘40s.
“When McDonald’s came along, they pretty much standardized business,” explains Geoff Emede, owner of Old Town Drive-In. “The way to run a franchise is that everybody’s exactly the same throughout the country, and A&Ws didn’t used to be that way. You went to different A&Ws throughout the country and they all had different sauces and different hot dogs—you know depending on the area and what that area liked,” explains Emede.
As a Saginaw native Emede used to frequent the business quite often before getting a job there. Old Town Drive-In was his first job in the restaurant industry.
“I just kept moving to bigger and better and higher places. It was just the next step [to become owner],” explains Emede.
In 1987 Emede took over the restaurant and in those years he’s seen the city go through many changes. The demographics of customers have changed as well. High school students used to frequent Old Town Drive-In on their lunch breaks until the schools closed their campuses and their lunch rush dwindled. Years ago they could also expect to get a 3 p.m. rush from manufacturing jobs. People going into second shift would pick up food on their way to work and people leaving first shift would pick up food on their way home.
“We used to have all the General Motors jobs—a lot of manufacturing jobs. Then one by one they closed down, so we lost a lot of that,” explains Emede.
The business no longer closes for the winter like it did during past ownership. For the last 26 years it has stayed open year round.
“That was the biggest thing to overcome and still is. There’s still a certain percentage of people that think we’re closed in the winter because the original [business was]. There are still people that call up and say, ‘Alright, when are you closing for the winter?’ ” says Emede.
Corena Culver, an Azusa Pacific University student and native of Saginaw, loves Old Town Drive-In.
“I first came here when I was 11 with my grandparents. I used to come once a week for a root beer float. Now that I’m off at college it’s my first stop as soon as I come home,” says Culver.
According to Emede, Old Town Drive-In is a place for the young and old alike.
“I think they have fond memories from when they were quite a bit younger, and it is unique. So it’s not something you can get anywhere else. Between us and Tony’s and Spatz bakery—that kind of thing—it’s pretty common, they tend to hit all three of those,” says Emede.
Old Town Drive-In, 807 S. Granger St., opens at 11 a.m. every day – sometimes staying open until 9:30 p.m. They are closed on Sundays.
