7 Dick’s Drive-In Orders Washingtonians Defend to Anyone Who’ll Listen
For 62 years, Dick’s Drive-In only took cash.
The menu’s still short, but Washingtonians around Seattle still argue over the right order.
Here are the Dick’s Drive-In orders Washingtonians defend to anyone who’ll listen.
1. Deluxe
The Dick’s Deluxe comes with two patties, melted cheese, lettuce, mayonnaise and sweet pickle relish.
Many locals treat it as the order to beat.
It arrived in 1971, and it’s still on the menu today.
If you’re ordering one for the first time, expect a burger with two patties and melted cheese.
2. Special
Order the Special at Dick’s and you get a single patty with lettuce, mayonnaise and sweet pickle relish.
The Special debuted the same year as the Deluxe.
Next to the Deluxe, it’s missing the second patty and the cheese.
That’s the whole difference.
Dick’s says all of its burgers, the Special included, use beef that is always fresh and never frozen.
Its buns are locally made at Franz Bakery and delivered fresh every other day.
Psst! How much do you know about Seattle’s food history? Take our quiz and see if you can ace it.
Quiz
Seattle Food IQ
Answer these questions on Seattle’s food history. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
When Toshi’s opened on lower Queen Anne, a plate of chicken teriyaki with rice and salad cost how much?
3. Cheeseburger
Dick's Drive-In sells its cheeseburger as a single patty with cheese, ketchup and a small amount of mild mustard.
Order one today and you're making the same choice the first customers faced on January 28, 1954, when it came down to a hamburger or cheeseburger.
Both burgers cost 19¢ back then, which Dick's calls its original price.
Some locals rarely order anything else.
The Math Behind Dick's Burger Sizes
The Special and the cheeseburger each have a single 1/8-pound patty.
Order a Deluxe and you're getting a quarter pound of beef, since it stacks two of those patties.
4. Fries
The fries are cut fresh each day from Pacific Northwest potatoes, according to Dick's menu.
Whole potatoes once went through a mechanical spud cutter on the premises.
The fry oil is high oleic sunflower oil.
Ask what goes with your burger, and fries will probably come up first.
5. Shake
Your shake at Dick's Drive-In comes in vanilla, chocolate or strawberry.
Milkshakes were among the original 1954 offerings, and they were handmade the old-fashioned way.
Today, Dick's says the ice cream is hand-dipped and individually whipped, so your shake gets made one at a time.
6. Ice Cream Sundae
A sundae at Dick's Drive-In comes with your choice of hot fudge, butterscotch or strawberry topping.
The ice cream comes in seven flavors, including Huckleberry and Rocky Road.
Pick the flavor first, and the topping is the only other decision you'll have to make.
7. Float
A float is your choice of ice cream and soda.
You pick the soda and the ice cream, so the float at the next table may not look like yours.
The 1954 Opening
The first Dick's window opened on the morning of January 28, 1954, in Wallingford.
Three partners, Dick Spady, Warren Ghormley and Tom Thomas, each invested $5,000 to launch the first Dick's Drive-In.
The sign out front promised hamburgers at 19¢ and instant service.
Besides hamburgers, the first window sold cheeseburgers, fries, Coca-Cola and orange soda, along with milkshakes and ice cream offerings.
Order burgers, fries and a shake today and you're ordering from much the same lineup the first window offered.
Cash and Cards
For 62 years, Dick's Drive-In took payment only in cash.
Cards came in 2016, and Dick's payments page now lists Visa, Mastercard, Discover and American Express.
Mobile pay works too, with Apple Pay, Google Wallet and Samsung Wallet accepted.
If you're paying with cash, Dick's rounds your total to the nearest nickel.
Late-Night Hours
Some Dick's windows keep late-night hours.
The locations page lists 10:30 a.m. to 2 a.m. daily for Holman Road, Queen Anne, Kent, Crossroads and Federal Way.
If you're craving a Deluxe after a late night, check that page for your window's hours first.
19-Cent Burger Days
In January 2026, Dick's Drive-In brought the original burger price back for four days.
The release says the original prices were available at different locations each day.
At the participating locations, your cheeseburger would have cost the same 19¢ the first customers paid.
The run was meant to celebrate 72 years in business.
Location Timeline
Dick's Drive-In added its Broadway window in 1955, Holman Road in 1960, Lake City in 1963 and Queen Anne in 1974.
A Bellevue window opened in 1965 and closed, then came back decades later at Crossroads.
Edmonds opened in 2011, which HistoryLink calls the first new Dick's in nearly four decades.
Kent followed in 2018 and Federal Way in 2023, so if you're ordering at either one, you're at one of the newer windows.
Everett opened in June 2025 as the chain's 10th restaurant.
Staying Local
The partners chose not to franchise, and Dick's says it wanted to keep its growth within the Seattle area.
It also simplified ordering so you could order anything you wanted from any window.
HistoryLink says the owners picked Wallingford for its closeness to Lincoln and Roosevelt high schools.
Queen Anne is also the only location with indoor seating, as of 2024.
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