Detour Pit Stop #34: Mel's Drive-In, Hollywood, Los Angeles, USA
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Sitting on Sunset Boulevard, just down from The Comedy Store and opposite the Oppenheimer Group (of Selling Sunset fame) is another American icon – Mel’s Drive-In.
The story of Mel’s begins further north in San Francisco in 1947 when David ‘Mel’ Weiss and Harold Dobbs opened their first ‘car hop’ serving American classic dishes to diners in their automobiles. The company rapidly expanded, growing to 35 locations by 1972. American Graffiti was famously filmed at Mel’s that year, and, cashing in on the fame, Weiss and Dobbs decided to cash out and sold the business.
In 1985, Weiss’s son Steven and partner Donald Wagstaff brought the Mel’s name back to San Francisco and the ‘Next Generation Mel’s’ took off. A family feud ensued which means that you’ll also find ‘Original Mel’s’ in Northern California and Nevada.
The Hollywood branch is the flagship of the Next Generation, but still serves traditional hearty, (possibly heart-attack-inducing) food in classic diner surroundings with ample parking. Detour has been for breakfast, lunch and dinner – although never on the same day. We throughly recommend the Elvis Scramble to start the day, the Reuben sandwich and the Sunset Burger.
When you’ve eaten your fill it’s just a short stagger back to your car before the inevitable food coma hits, so it’s best to wait a while before continuing any California road trip.