science

Mel's Drive-In

Mel's Drive-In is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Mel's Drive-In rather than just read about it. In short: Mel's Drive-In refers to two American restaurant chains, the successors of a chain founded in 1947 by Mel Weiss and Harold Dobbs in San Francisco, California. The original chain operated until the 1970s.

Key takeaways

Mel's Drive-In belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Mel's Drive-In to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Mel's Drive-In from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Mel's Drive-In refers to two American restaurant chains, the successors of a chain founded in 1947 by Mel Weiss and Harold Dobbs in San Francisco, California. The original chain operated until the 1970s. A new generation of Mel's Drive-In restaurants then began opening in the 1980s, with the business split into two separate groups: one doing business under the original Mel's Drive-In name and the other under the name Original Mels. Mel's Drive-In became closely associated with the 1973 film American Graffiti after one of its restaurants was used as a filming location. The film's distributor, Universal Studios, licensed the Mel's Drive-In brand to recreate the restaurants in its Universal theme parks. The signage and menus on the original Mel's Diners did not have a possessive apostrophe in the name, as would be expected. However, Universal Studios opted to include the apostrophe in all Mel's Drive-In signage, literature, and media.

History The first Mel's Drive-In was founded in 1947 by Mel Weiss and Harold Dobbs in San Francisco, California. It later expanded to several other locations. After the last of the original restaurants closed in the 1970s, Weiss's son Steven Weiss and partner Donald Wagstaff opened the first of a new generation of Mel's Drive-In restaurants in 1985. A family rift between father and son caused them to part ways and form two chains, with Steven retaining the "Mel's Drive-In" name and Mel calling his restaurants "Original Mels". The elder Weiss then sold his company in 1994. The Original Mels locations are not listed on the official Mel's Drive-In website, and vice versa.

Locations

Next generation Mel's Drive-In As of 2025, the next generation Mel's Drive-In chain has eight locations, four in San Francisco and four in the Los Angeles Area. Some Mel's Drive-In locations are not drive-ins but rather diners. For example, while founded in San Francisco, none of the locations in the city currently serve food to patrons' cars. The location near Downtown San Francisco, rechristened "Mel's Kitchen", has gone upscale, serving $12 cocktails, $16 burgers with locally sourced beef, ahi poke, acai smoothies, and avocado toast. That site was almost demolished in 2018 to build housing.

All four locations in the Los Angeles area are housed in historic buildings. Mel's Drive-In in the Sherman Oaks neighborhood of Los Angeles was built as Kerry's coffee shop in 1953. The googie style building was designed by Armet & Davis. Mel's Drive-In in West Hollywood was built as Ben Frank's in 1962. The googie style building was designed by Lane & Schlick. Mel's Drive-In in Hollywood is located in a portion of the former Max Factor makeup studio designed by theater architect S. Charles Lee. The Hollywood Regency style building was designed by S. Charles Lee and built in 1935. The Mel's Drive-In in Santa Monica was built as The Penguin in 1958. The googie style building was designed by Armet & Davis.

Original Mels

The Original Mels chain has 22 locations across Northern California and Nevada. There are some Northern California locations that share the same general American Graffiti nostalgia theme and the similarly styled Mel's logo.

Protest

Starting on October 16, 1963, the Ad Hoc Committee to End Discrimination organized pickets and sit-ins at the Mel's Drive-In locations in San Francisco, Oakland, and Berkeley over the fact that while the restaurant would serve food to African Americans and hired them as cooks, they 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, Mel's Drive-In co-founder who was serving as a San Francisco City supervisor at the time, settled with the protesters and began to allow black workers upfront.

In popular culture

In 1972, the restaurant was selected as a feature location by George Lucas for his 1973 film American Graffiti. The Mel's used was located at 140 South Van Ness Avenue in San Francisco. It serves as the setting for the opening scene of the film as well as the backdrop for the opening credits, accompanied on the soundtrack by Bill Haley’s “Rock Around the Clock”. The prominent play given to the location has been credited with having saved the company from possibly going out of business. Signage and artwork from the Mel's chain are frequently used in marketing for the film. Universal Studios has built replica Mel's Drive-In restaurants, resembling the one featured in American Graffiti, at their theme parks in Hollywood, Orlando, Japan, Beijing, and Singapore. Prior to American Graffiti, 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; he then has a minor traffic altercation with a black man. The Mel's was located in the Excelsior district of San Francisco. Hepburn and Tracy never actually visited the location. 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.

Gallery

References

External links

Original Mels official website Mels Drive-In official website Original Mels and Mels Drive-in Article Mel's Drive-in: The True Story of the World's Most Famous Drive-in Pt.1 Article

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Mel's Drive-In

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Mel's Drive-In claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Mel's Drive-In before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Mel's Drive-In ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Mel's Drive-In

In research: Mel's Drive-In appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Mel's Drive-In in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Mel's Drive-In is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1947 establishments in California, Commercial buildings in Los Angeles, Drive-in restaurants, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Mel's Drive-In outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Mel's Drive-In in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Mel's Drive-In means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Mel's Drive-In out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Mel's Drive-In in simple terms?

Why does Mel's Drive-In matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Mel's Drive-In?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Mel's Drive-In.