Mel's Drive-In
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Mel's Drive-In (not to be confused with Mel's Diner) is the name of a restaurant chain founded in 1947 by Mel Weiss and Harold Dobbs in San Francisco, California.
In October 1963, the Mel's Drive in chain was picketed and subjected to a sit-in by the Ad Hoc Committee to End Discrimination over the fact that while the restaurant would serve food to African Americans and hired them as cooks, Blacks were not allowed to work "up front" where they could be seen by White customers. More than 100 protesters were arrested. The picketing ended when Harold Dobbs, a San Francisco City Supervisor who had run for Mayor and lost, settled with the protestors and began to allow Black workers "up front." [1]
Mel's was used as a location in the 1967 film Guess Who's Coming to Dinner. Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn are out for a drive and Tracy pulls into Mel's and orders Oregon Boysenberry ice cream, then has a minor traffic altercation with an African-American man. The Mel's was located in the excelsior district in San Francisco. Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy never actually visited the location.
In 1972, the restaurant was selected as a feature location by George Lucas for his 1973 film American Graffiti. The prominent play given to the location has been credited with saving the company from possibly going out of business. The Mel's used was located at 140 South Van Ness in San Francisco.
Mel's restaurants have since been featured in other media such as Melrose Place (1996, Season 5, episode 1), Doonesbury comics (December 18, 1989), and the book The American Drive-in by Mike Witzel.
Some Mel's Drive-In locations are not actually drive-ins, but rather diners, although the sign still says "drive-in"; none of the San Francisco locations serve food to patrons' cars.
[edit] Mel's Drive-in vs. "Mel's Original"
There are also a number of "Mel's" located in Northern California which share the same general American Graffiti/nostalgia theme and similarly styled Mel's logo. These restaurants are called "Mel's Original." Their locations are not listed on the official Mel's Drive-In website, however an article from the Sacramento Business Journal shows they are related. A family rift caused the Weisses to part ways and form two chains. The elder Weiss in 1994 sold his company to Larry Spergel, who formed a group of about 50 stockholders that owns the chain now. The Walnut Creek, California location features a history of the original San Francisco Mel's.[citation needed]
