In the 1950s, a culture of cruising muscle cars, jeans and white t-shirts, pony tails and carhops on roller skates took over America. As the home to a lot of Omaha’s suburban dreamscape at the time, North Omaha had several drive-in restaurants starting in that decade and spreading into the 1960s. Cruising cars, eating burgers and socializing with friends was the height of this era. This is a history of drive-ins in North Omaha.

The Earliest Drive-Ins

Shown here: A&W Drive-In at N. 48th and Saddle Creek circa 1937 [left] and A&W Root Beer Drive-In, 44th and Dodge Street circa 1928. Pics courtesy of Durham Museum colored by AI.

A drive-in restaurant is where cars can pull into parking spot and be served food and drinks, pay for them, and passengers never leave their cars. Drive-ins are different from drive-through restaurants because cars simply pull up to a window, retrieve their food after ordering it from a microphone, and drive away without eating it. The first drive-in restaurant ever was supposedly opened in Texas in 1921. Their heydays in North Omaha were in the 1950s and 1960s, with a few existing north of Dodge Street and east of 72nd Street still today.

The earliest North Omaha drive-in restaurant that I’ve located in my research was a national chain called the A&W Root Beer Store, established in 1923. Three years later there was a location at North 16th and Wirt Streets and by 1930, there were several drive-in root beer stands around North Omaha selling root beer, ice cream and sandwiches. and came to North Omaha in the late 1920s. As early as 1926 there was a location on the south side of Dodge Street just east of Saddle Creek, and in 1930 there was another one at North 48th and Saddle Creek. Several of the locations were huge beer barrel shaped buildings.

There were other drive-in type businesses for cars that opened in North Omaha around the same time, including theaters, banks, ice cream stands and more.

The Cruisers Arrive

Shown here: Caniligia’s Royal Boy Drive-In at N. 30th and Fort circa 1958 [left] and Tiner’s Self-Serve Drive-In at N. 41st and Ames circa 1961. Pics courtesy of Durham Museum colored by AI.

Somewhere between 1930 and 1945 a generation of babies were born who especially loved cars. Sure, people before them loved cars and people after them loved cars, but when this group—made partly of the Silent Generation and partly of the Baby Boomers—became teenagers, they took their dad’s car, their grandparents’ jalopy and many other “bags of bolts” they could get their hands on and started souping them up. Right after World War II, there was a boom in the drive-in business, and suddenly there were locations everywhere. Over the next 15 years, a distinct youth culture emerged that was marked by drive-ins, hot rods, poodle skirts and slick-back hair. It was mostly white and racist, middle class and “cool.” In North Omaha, there were outliers and standouts, rebels and conformists.

Driving slowly through the community was called cruising, and cruisers came from all points in North Omaha to drag on North 30th by Fort Street, North 16th Street, Ames Avenue and of course, Dodge Street. Originally in the 1930s, Florence had its own cruising strip that was expanded south to Fort Street and then to Ames Avenue after World War II. There were a lot of traffic lights along the way, and parking lots to sit in and talk. Starting races, drivers would line up at streetlights and peel out for days before swooshing away for bragging rights.

Along the way, the busiest intersections had drive-ins along with gas stations and later, car dealers. With two drive-ins, a gas station and a car dealer, 30th and Fort was one of these. Another was 30th and Cuming, and other popular intersections were spread across North Omaha. [Share your favorite intersection for cruising and which decade it was in the comments!]

White teenagers from North High, Tech High, Central High and the private Catholic high schools started turning cars into hot rods, souping up the engines and giving flares to the bodies. They got whitewall tires and slicks, tuned up their engines and cranked up their resistor radios for the latest hits from Omaha’s FM stations. Getting away from their parents and hanging out with friends, young men showed off their cars and met girls, with groups of girls cruising too. They needed places to go.

One of the most popular drive-ins in North Omaha memories was called Caniglia’s Royal Boy Drive-In, and it was located directly across the street from Fort Omaha at North 30th and Fort Streets. In 1953, Yano “Mr. C.” bought the Marshall’s Drive-In, then across the street from the busy Naval Reserve Training Center at Fort Omaha. According to another local historian, Royal Boy “became a popular hangout for North Omaha teens and sailors from the Navy base.

Starting in 1947, Marshall’s Drive-In was advertised as a “sandwich shop” at North 30th and Fort Streets. Located at 5319 North 30th, the business hired “fountain girls” and young men through 1949. That year they started running want ads for “car hops,” as servers at drive-ins were called. Hiring car hops “over 16,” they expected them to work “2 nights per week” or Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. Marshall’s was only open until 1953, when it was sold and took on a new identity.

Marshall’s was one of many restaurants in North Omaha that explicitly stated in their want ads that they only hired white people. Along with having racially exclusive employment, peoples’ stories tell of drive-ins that wouldn’t serve Black people and cruisers that were overtly white supremacists. North Omaha’s car cruising culture was almost singularly white, despite the large community of African Americans who lived in the Near North Side.

Another local drive-in called Preema’s was started in 1946. According to research by Omaha historian Patrick Wyman, “Preema’s was an old school drive-in in which car hops would deliver the food to your car. They offered such fare as chicken, shrimp, hot tamales, footlongs and hamburgers, of course. With his hard work and business acumen, the restaurant thrived…” However, founder William Barnes (1921-1974) had a vision for a cowboy-themed drive-in, and started the first Bronco’s Self-Service Drive-In at North 30th and Fort Street in 1959. Closing Preema’s just three years later, Barnes expanded Bronco’s throughout the city. Bronco’s stayed open at 30th and Fort into the 1990s.

After being Preema’s from 1946 to 1962, the restaurant at 3002 North 16th Street became Joe’s Drive-In around 1963. By the late 1960s, it was the Big Steer Drive-In. It was a dine-in restaurant for decades after that, and has been empty for several years now.

Shada’s Drive-In was located at 4519 Cuming Street from 1955 to 1960, eventually being sold to become Tiner’s Drive-In #5. Fred Barnes, Jr. and Einer Abramson owned that chain, and Ken Shada and Charles Shada sold their business to Tiner’s. However, they only stayed open there for two years until 1962 before closing out the location.

The Frosty Drive-In opened on the southwest corner of North 42nd and Redman in 1957. They offered a shrimp taco along with racial stereotypes of Latine people, and were open until 1963.

Zesto’s Frozen Custard Drive-In is a chain that was established in 1945 and arrived in Florence in 1953. The business stills serve the community loyally, and many people associate summer good times with that specific place. After North High football games, on hot Saturdays and throughout the season people are into the food and delicious ice cream served there still today.

After opening as a Reed’s Ice Cream Shoppe in 1941, the store at 4116 Ames Avenue became a Tiner’s location in 1959, but only stayed in that chain for three years. Early in 1962, the location became a restaurant called Cosmo’s Drive-In. After a fire wiped out that endeavor within a few months, Bob Cutchall opened his long-standing A&W Drive-In there later that year. A thoroughly modern restaurant, the A&W was located A&W on Ames Avenue between North 44th and Fontenelle Boulevard after starting at 1520 Saddle Creek earlier. The A&W Drive-In was different than drive-throughs like McDonald’s or Burger Chef for many reasons, including their ordering queues, servers and more. This location stayed open into the 1980s and adapted a lot. By then the Cutchall family had successfully established a citywide dynasty of fast food restaurants.

Along with Bronco’s, there were a few other local chain drive-ins in North Omaha that were popular with cruisers, too. They included Tiner’s, which had locations at 44th that helped cement Dodge Street’s primary role in cruising by the 1960s, along with a short-lived outlet at North 41st and Ames Avenue.

Cruising culture was never going to last forever though, and neither were drive-in restaurants that depended on that culture. In 1959, Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens died in a plane crash by Clear Lake, Iowa. In November 1963 President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. The first riots happened on North 24th Street in 1966, and Omaha’s youth kept changing.

The heyday of drive-ins in North Omaha was clearly 1957 to 1963. Several restaurants opened and closed in that exact window, and the culture had its peak influence in the larger city during that era. Cruising stayed popular into the 1970s with wildly painted vans and pickup trucks joining hot rods and muscle cars from the earlier era. Racing between hot rods moved to Abbott Drive and McKinley Street, and mooned anyone watching, laid rubber when a signal turned green, and did “chinese fire drills” for the fun of it.

Things changed. In the late 1960s the Caniglia’s Royal Boy Drive-In drive-in expanded, “added an indoor sit-down restaurant, and began to specialize in pizza and other Italian specialties, as opposed to burgers, chicken, and fries.” In 1971, Mr. C’s took out the drive-in entirely and became a steakhouse, eventually offering 1,400 seats throughout the establishment before closing.

Police started cracking down in North Omaha after Caniglia’s Royal Boy converted to Mr. C’s in 1971. That year, the newspaper started reporting that “socializing and assembling” interfered with the conduct of businesses. Business owners and residents said cruising stopped general traffic and emergency vehicles and had “undesirable noise levels.”

Instead of drive-ins, throughout the 1970s new drive-through restaurants opened in North Omaha during this era and moved drivers away from one experience and towards the other.

Cruising Ended

Shown here: The Burger Chef location on North 30th and the McDonald’s location at North 24th and Cuming were not drive-ins, but drive-thrus. They were, however, partially responsible for the demise of North O’s drive-ins.

In the 1990s Omaha adopted an ordinance to stop cruising, and police issued tickets for loitering and curfew violations. Cruisers were coming from throughout the region to gather on Dodge Street and fights between groups of cruisers happened more often. Viewing these visitors as troublemakers, the City of Omaha banned cruising altogether, and 50 years later it’s dead by almost all accounts.

When I was a young teen in 1990, I cruised for a summer with my brother and his friends on Dodge Street, honking and yelling at girls and dropping the clutch at lights between North 72nd and 90th Streets. However, within a few years that was all over and nobody seemed to do it anymore.

Bronco’s Drive-In at 30th and Fort closed permanently in the 1990s. Its closure was heralded by the opening of a fast food chicken drive-through across the street, and eventually Bronco’s was replaced by a national chain at the same location.

As of 2023, there are still drive-in restaurants in North Omaha. The most iconic is Zesto’s in Florence by North 30th and Tucker Street, with the other modern chain at North 30th and Fort Street, Sonic, which has been open since 2000.

However, the memories of the cruisers are fading with the passing decades. Given the racism that seemed endemic to the cruising culture, some are anxious to see these memories gone. Others, however, prop up defensiveness about the “good old days” with stories of “laying rubber,” “flipping off pigs,” “mooning” nearby cars and being young forever. Some of these stories are told at the annual “Vintage Wheels at the Fort” event held every August by the Douglas County Historical Society at Fort Omaha.

There are no memorials to the drive-ins in North Omaha or the cruising culture that once dominated some parts of the community. Do you have memories you want to share? Please leave them in the comments section!

North Omaha Drive-In Directory

Adam’s Note: Share your additions north of Dodge Street and east of 72nd Street in the comments section!

1. A&W Root Beer Stand, 3002 N. 16th St., 1926-1946
2. A&W, N. 48th and Saddle Creek, 1930-1950s
3. Bob’s A&W Drive-In, 4116 Ames Ave., 1962-1980s
4. Bronco’s, N. 30th and Fort St., 1950s-1990s
5. Caniglia’s Royal Boy Drive-In, 3014 N. 30th St., 1953-1971
6. Colonial Drive-In, 6116 Ames Ave., 1970s
7. Cosmo’s Drive-In, 4116 Ames Ave. 1962
8. Frosty’s Drive-In, 42nd and Redman Ave., 1957-1962
9. Preema’s, 3002 N. 16th St., 1946-1962
10. Shadda’s Drive-In, 4519 Cuming St., 1955-1960
11. Sonic, 5214 N. 30th St., 2000-present
12. Tiner’s Drive-In, 4116 Ames Ave., 1959-1962
13. Tiner’s Drive-In, 44th and Dodge St.
14. Tiner’s Drive-In, Cuming St., 1960-1962
15. Zesto’s, 8608 N. 30th St., 1946-present

You Might Like…

• A History of Restaurants, Diners and Food Businesses in North Omaha
• A History of Shada’s Drive-In
• A History of the Intersection of North 30th and Fort Streets

MY ARTICLES ON THE HISTORY OF ARCHITECTURE IN NORTH OMAHA

GENERAL: Architectural Gems | The Oldest House | The Oldest Places
PLACES: Mansions and Estates | Apartments | Churches | Public Housing | Houses | Commercial Buildings | Hotels | Victorian Houses
PEOPLE: ‘Cap’ Clarence Wigington | Everett S. Dodds | Jacob Maag | George F. Shepard | John F. Bloom
HISTORIC HOUSES: Mergen House | Hoyer House | North Omaha’s Sod House | James C. Mitchell House | Charles Storz House | George F. Shepard House | 2902 N. 25th St. | 6327 Florence Blvd. | 1618 Emmet St. | John E. Reagan House
PUBLIC HOUSING: Logan Fontenelle | Spencer Street | Hilltop | Pleasantview | Myott Park aka Wintergreen
NORMAL HOUSES: 3155 Meredith Ave. | 5815 Florence Blvd. | 2936 N. 24th St. | 6711 N. 31st Ave. | 3210 N. 21st St. | 4517 Browne St. | 5833 Florence Blvd. | 1922 Wirt St. | 3467 N. 42nd St. | 5504 Kansas Ave. | Lost Blue Windows House | House of Tomorrow | 2003 Pinkney Street
HISTORIC APARTMENTS: Historic Apartments | Ernie Chambers Court, aka Strehlow Terrace | The Sherman Apartments | Logan Fontenelle Housing Projects | Spencer Street Projects | Hilltop Projects | Pleasantview Projects | Memmen Apartments | The Sherman | The Climmie | University Apartments | Campion House
MANSIONS & ESTATES: Hillcrest Mansion | Burkenroad House aka Broadview Hotel aka Trimble Castle | McCreary Mansion | Parker Estate | J. J. Brown Mansion | Poppleton Estate | Rome Miller Mansion | Redick Mansion | Thomas Mansion | John E. Reagan House | Brandeis Country Home | Bailey Residence | Lantry – Thompson Mansion | McLain Mansion | Stroud Mansion | Anna Wilson’s Mansion | Zabriskie Mansion | The Governor’s Estate | Count Creighton House | John P. Bay House | Mercer Mansion | Hunt Mansion | Latenser Round House and the Bellweather Mansion
COMMERCIAL BUILDINGS: 4426 Florence Blvd. | 2410 Lake St. | 26th and Lake Streetcar Shop | 1324 N. 24th St. | 2936 N. 24th St. | 5901 N. 30th St. | 4402 Florence Blvd. | 4225 Florence Blvd. | 3702 N. 16th St. | House of Hope | Drive-In Restaurants
RELATED: Redlining | Neighborhoods | Streets | Streetcars | Churches | Schools

BONUS

Shown here: An ad for the Tiner’s at North 41st and Ames and a separate one for the Frosty Drive-In at North 42nd and Redman from the late 1950s.

Shown here: My drawings of Caniglia’s Royal Boy Drive-In and Bronco ‘s, both located at North 30th and Fort Streets during the heydays of cruising in North Omaha in the 1950s and 1960s. Also shown is Zesto’s, a Florence institution since 1953!