Y'all know I love a good drive in restaurant, so imagine my surprise when there was one in Parkersburg I had no idea about.

Davis Drive In is a small building, housing just the cooks cranking out tasty treats. A few seats are located outside under a covered porch, and a large parking area extends beyond the building.


Drive-ins are so cool because they harken back to an era that just helps define "Americana." They were popular when dining out wasn't, and I feel like a large part of their existence is reliant upon the experience - enjoying a meal with your family or friends in your car, listening to your favorite songs.

Davis Drive In has standard drive-in fare: hotdogs, hamburgers (and a pizza burger!), BBQ pork, fries, and some other fried sides - like green beans and cauliflower. There are also a number of sweet treats: milkshakes, Coke floats, banana splits and sundaes.

The almighty hotdog is a good way to take the temperature of a drive-in. It's likely one of their top sellers, so it's a good judge. I pulled into the parking lot, backing in so I could see the menu from my car, and before I knew it, a young gentleman was at my car window ready to take my order. I got a dog with chili, slaw, mustard and onions. I handed over cash.

After just a few moments, a young girl delivered to my car a hotdog in a sleeve, my bottle of water and change from my order. The hotdog became nicely steamed in that sleeve, and everything just kind of blended together in this soft, savory snack. The bun soft, the hot dog was boiled, the slaw was mild but had a hint of sweetness, and the chili added some richness. This was a pretty good dog. Plus, it's a cool experience for something a little different in the Mid-Ohio Valley.

Grade: A

West Virginia is home to about a dozen drive-in restaurants that continue to thrive despite being about a half-century removed from their prime.

The first drive-in restaurant was Kirby's Pig Stand, which opened in Dallas, Texas, in 1921. In North America, drive-in facilities of all types have become less popular since their heyday in the 1950s and 1960s, with drive-throughs rising to prominence since the 1970s and 1980s.

The drive-in is reminiscent of a simpler time when eating out at restaurant wasn't the norm, and there's something fun about participating in this iconic Americana experience. Carhops skating around, jotting down orders on paper pads and racing them to the kitchen. They return with a tray full of (often) fried foods or juicy cheeseburgers that rest on the car window.

The 1950s drive-in is still alive in parts of West Virginia, with carhops slinging milkshakes and orders of french fries to lines of automobiles. And loyal customers return to their beloved drive-ins time and time again for the homemade recipes and to support a local business.

Get out your map. Pull into a drive-in restaurant on this list. Park near a menu. Wait for a carhop (hopefully on roller skates!). Order something delicious (can't go wrong with a West Virginia-style hotdog, cheeseburger or milkshake). Make sure to have your window rolled down so that just about 1/3 or 1/4 shows; the carhop will place the tray on your window. Chow down. Wait for them to pay (usually with cash). Sometimes they will leave the change on your tray. No worries, they will have bills handy. When you're finished, turn on your headlights (or honk in some places), so they take the tray and you can be on your merry way.



Frostop Drive-In (Huntington)
1449 Hal Greer Boulevard, Huntington, WV 25701, 304.523.6851
Monday through Saturday 10 a.m.-10 p.m. and Sunday 11 a.m.-10 p.m.
Drive toward the giant, mesmerizing rotating root beer mug atop the Frostop Drive-In in Huntington to lead yourself to the best root beer float (in a frosted mug) you may ever experience. Frostop, once a well-known drive-in franchise, has just a few locations remaining in the country and is the only remaining location in West Virginia. The 1959 restaurant encourages customers to honk their horns for service so that a carhop, donning yellow or brown shirts with brown caps with 'Frostop' written in the cursive logo, will arrive. My trip to Frostop came on the heels of a daylong hotdog festival, but they also have a tasty hotdog. Get it the West Virginia way: with chili, slaw, mustard and onions. The hot dogs are boiled, and buns are steamed. The chili sauce is a family recipe that has been passed down through generations.



301 North Eisenhower Drive, Beckley, WV 25801, 304.252.6353
Mon.-Tues. 10:30 a.m. -11 p.m.; Thurs.-Sun. 10:30 a.m. -11 p.m.; closed Wed.
Beckley's King Tut Drive-In has a huge menu, offering everything from sandwiches and burgers to plated dinners, like meatloaf, chicken strips and seafood. King Tut also takes credit for introducing pizza to the Beckley area. At first, the restaurant had trouble selling pizza before it caught on big time. Try one with pepperoni!



Pinnacle Drive Inn (Pineville)
Pinnacle Avenue and Route 16, Pineville, WV 24874, 304.732.7785
Monday through Saturday 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. The restaurant is closed Sundays.
Wyoming County's drive-in restaurant has had a loyal following since it opened in November 1968. Check out their "sandwich specialties" that range from a "Big John" (ham, swiss, salami, lettuce, tomato and mayonnaise) to a "Submarine" (turkey salad, bacon, lettuce, tomato, mayonnaise and cranberry sauce). Pinnacle Drive Inn's hot dogs are served with fresh chili and in a toasted English bun.



Jim's Drive In (Lewisburg)

The final drive in in West Virginia! Finally! I visited Lynn's Drive In in Bluewell on a rainy Saturday. (And, since I've gone to all of them now, I just want to gripe about how they all spell "drive in" differently. It can be "drive in," "drive-in," drive inn," "drive-inn," etc. Grumble)

Since it was raining, I felt super bad that the carhop came to my window. Especially when I didn't really know what I wanted. I asked for a few minutes to look over the menu written on the window. She said to just honk when I was ready. Is that aggressive? Honking?

The menu consists of items you would expect at a drive-in: burgers, hotdogs, some salads and some "plated" entree meals. Plus tons of ice cream. If it wasn't so chilly already, I would've had at least three milkshakes.

After a few minutes, I saw someone actually go up to the window to order. I felt like that would be more polite than honking so I went up to the window and placed an order for a hotdog with chili, slaw, mustard and onions, as well as an order of the broccoli and cheese bites.

I returned to my car and a few minutes later, she delivered our plate full of food. Hotdog - not bad! The chili wasn't especially memorable, but I liked the slaw - a nice consistency with good flavor. The broccoli and cheese bites just OK. I didn't honestly get much of a "cheesy" flavor; it was more of a fried flavor with the thick breading. But decent, fried food from a drive in? Check.

Next time, I need to try one of those 32 ice cream flavors!

Grade: B

After checking out the Stewart's Original Hot Dogs location in Kenova, we hopped over to the Huntington location to compare. For starters, there's no restaurant seating at the Huntington location. It's an outdoor counter that has some accompanying outdoor seating. But most folks sat in their cars.

I already had an OK hotdog, so I wanted to try that root beer float. First off, it's huge. And, it wasn't the easiest to eat with that odd bubble top. I ended up taking that off and using a spoon so get all the goodness in one bite. Root beer + ice cream = no better way to have root beer. And a pretty good rendition of one.

Chelsey went for cheesy ranch fries this time, and I really like the shredded melted cheese more than the nacho cheese product. The "ranch" part is just ranch dipping sauce. But, nonetheless, good junk food.

Grade: B

Stewart's Original Hot Dogs has two locations: one in Kenova and one in Huntington. The restaurant has been around for quite some time, and it purchases its meat from S.S. Logan Packing co. and buns from Heiner's Bakery, which is a cool collaboration between three area businesses. Another cool thing about this eatery is that it helped create the West Virginia Hot Dog Festival, which is the very first time I tried a Stewart's hot dog.

Since Kenova was a bit out of the way, we wanted to knock that one out first. We pulled up into a spot outside the main restaurant (you may eat inside if you are so inclined) and waited for a bit before a carhop came by. They stuck a white sheet under my windshield wiper to show that we had been waited on. I asked for a menu, because I had no idea what I wanted. But, the "famous original hot dog" seemed like a good bet. I ordered one, not really knowing exactly what came on it and proceeding to panic that it might just be a plain hot dog.

Fear not, when the hot dog arrived all wrapped in a napkin, I could already tell there was at least chili. And then I discovered also onions and mustard. Not too shabby - just some slaw away from being a true West Virginia hot dog. And slaw is available if you think to order it.

The hot dog is OK. It's certainly not my favorite hot dog - but that's tough considering this one was slawless. But the chili was just not my favorite. It was a little bland and heavy. Chelsey's rootbeer float, though, looked incredible, and I knew what I wanted at the other Stewart's location immediately.

Grade: B

Just a few more drive-ins to get through in West Virginia. And, a few of them are located right in the Huntington area. I've already been to Frostop (and tried hotdogs from the other drive-ins during the hotdog festival), but I hadn't been to many of the actual drive-in locations.

Midway (West) Drive-In is located at 445 6th Avenue West. When we arrived around lunchtime, it was packed. Like, I wasn't totally sure where to park. As I was hesitating, someone pulled out, and I nabbed their spot up front.

I hadn't had time to do appropriate research to find out what I wanted, and it seems that most folks who frequent drive-ins have a "regular" order, because the carhops don't bring menus. This is also the first drive-in I've been to where it was just all guys working as the carhops. So, I asked for a menu and quickly texted my good friend Chris to get his opinion on a few options he said would be good. Ultimately, I went with the smoked pork bbq sandwich. My cousin, Chelsey, went with the cheese fries.

The verdict: Pork bbq sandwich is good. It COULD have been a bit more tender, but the flavor was great. The french fries - the large crinkle cuts aren't my favorite. A bit too dense and could use an extra minute or so cooking to get crisp. But, overall, a nice lunch at a small pricetag.


Grade: A

I'm rounding the last corner on my trip to try all the drive-in restaurants in West Virginia. If you haven't been following along, West Virginia has just about a dozen drive-in restaurants left in the state. Most of the remaining drive-ins are located in the southern part of the state. I've made my way to many, including Sterling Drive-In in Welch, the Pinnacle Drive-In in Pineville, the Tunnel Drive-In in Williamson, the King Tut Drive-In in Beckley, the Frostop Drive In in Huntington, Jim's Drive In in Lewisburg and Biggie's in Grafton (the last two have not yet posted at the time of writing this post). Just a few more to go!

Because there are three drive-in restaurants located right in Logan, I made the trip there to try all three of the restaurants during lunch. The first was a chicken sandwich at Janet's Park &Eat. The second? Parkway Drive In's cheeseburger. And the best for last: Morrison's Drive Inn!

The three Logan drive-ins are owned by the same family and each feature similar menu items, though they all boast individual recipes. Morrison's, though, does the most business by far. It was also named as one of the bets hotdogs in the state. That made my decision here pretty easy. We pulled up, saw a carhop nearby, asked if we could just place our order with her, and headed over to the picnic tables nearby to have our meal.

Once she brought out our hotdogs, I first noticed they're wrapped in cellophane - that was a first! It definitely keeps in ALL the heat and would prevent leaking through paper. But since it holds in heat so well, eat it quickly! The chili, slaw, mustard and onions all began to run together, so the individual ingredients were hard to distinguish. But the combined flavor overall was on point. I liked the chili a lot - good flavor. The slaw was a bit piecey - I kind of like a more paste consistency. But I'm just splitting hairs. I liked this hotdog. I'll defer to the West Virginia Hot Dog Blog on the official weenie ranking, but as far as Candace Lately goes - get it!

Grade: A

I'm rounding the last corner on my trip to try all the drive-in restaurants in West Virginia. If you haven't been following along, West Virginia has just about a dozen drive-in restaurants left in the state.

Most of the remaining drive-ins are located in the southern part of the state. I've made my way to the Sterling Drive-In in Welch, the Pinnacle Drive-In in Pineville, the Tunnel Drive-In in Williamson, the King Tut Drive-In in Beckley, the Frostop Drive In in Huntington, Jim's Drive In in Lewisburg and Biggie's in Grafton (the last two have not yet posted at the time of writing this post). Just a few more to go!

Because there are three drive-in restaurants located right in Logan, I made the trip there to try all three of the restaurants during lunch. The first was a chicken sandwich at Janet's Park & Eat. The second? Parkway Drive In.

I have heard this group of restaurants, who all have the same owner but with individual recipes, have good cheeseburgers and hotdogs. So I went with a cheeseburger on this one ... and maybe a strawberry milkshake, too.

I'm told for cheeseburgers, they make a grilled cheese and open it up to add a burger patty. Did they do that for this one? I dunno. Kinda looks like a regular burger to me. BUT, it was a good one. Maybe it was because I got lettuce, onion and tomato on it? I'm not sure. But it really is quite tasty. The cheese oozed out and was perfectly melted.

Oh, and the strawberry milkshake ... I've decided strawberry milkshakes are on of life's greatest pleasures.

Grade: A