Roberts Brothers, Los Angeles 1930s

From History.com: "A Dallas entrepreneur named Jessie G. Kirby built the first Pig Stand along the Dallas-Fort Worth Highway in October 1921. It was a roadside barbecue restaurant unlike any other: Its patrons could drive up, eat and leave, all without budging from their automobiles. (“People with cars are so lazy,” Kirby explained, “they don’t want to get out of them.”) Kirby lured these car-attached customers with great fanfare and spectacle. When a customer pulled into the Pig Stand parking lot, teenaged boys in white shirts and black bow ties jogged over to his car, hopped up onto the running board—sometimes before the driver had even pulled into a parking space—and took his order. (This daredevilry won the servers a nickname: carhops.) Soon, the Pig Stand drive-ins replaced the carhops with attractive young girls on roller skates, but the basic formula was the same: good-looking young people, tasty food, speedy service and auto-based convenience."

Many people say that California’s Pig Stand No. 21 became the first drive through restaurant in the world in 1931 and by the time Pig Stand No. 27 opened in Los Angeles other restaurateurs spotted the opportunity and copied the drive through concept with their own offereings. Roberts Brothers who had been “Dishing it out since 1900” had at least five drive-in restauarnts in the Los Angeles area.

Courtesy Private Collection.

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