You Can Thank Missouri for Drive-Thru Restaurants

In researching fun facts about Missouri and the more and more I went down the rabbit hole of the Google, I found that Missouri is home to the first known drive-thru in the Nation.

Get our free mobile app

The best part about this story, the restaurant that created the drive-thru is still open to this day. The start goes back to the 1920s when Kirby's Pig Stand used carhops to deliver food to customers. Then Red's Giant Hamburg Restaurant in Springfield took that idea to the next level and introduced the drive-thru as we know it today.

Red’s Giant Hamburg dates back to 1947, and it earns credit as being the first fast food restaurant to have a drive-thru window. Missourians still flock to Red’s Giant Hamburg in Springfield for a delicious burger and a side of nostalgia.

It wasn't until the late 1940s when In-N-Out Burger owners added the speaker box system (which the owner created himself) which is used at all fast-food restaurants to this day. The original Red's Giant was demolished in 1997 after is was closed for almost 10 years. The "new" Red's Giant opened just a few years ago, in 2019, 35 years after the original location closed.

I have never been to Red's Giant. but it is a place that holds a ton of American history that I am sure you would have never known. See, going down the Google rabbit hole pays off sometimes. You just never know what you will learn.