Mike's Drive-In Announces Tigard Site, Bringing Nostalgia West

Oregon City, OR — It's been just more than 50 years since Mike Martin opened a drive-in restaurant at 47th and Burnside in Portland. Two years later, he moved the joint to Southeast Harrison and Oregon 224 in Milwaukie.

There's now also a location in Oregon City.

The chain now says that they will open a third location, their first one on the West Side, in Tigard. It's actually their second go-around at having three locations at the same time – for many years they had a location in Sellwood. That one was sold and torn down a few years ago.

The announcement of the Tigard location was made on the company's Facebook page. They had said last week they would be opening a third spot and encouraged people to guess where it would be.

More than 500 people offered ideas ranging from Lake Oswego to Hood River, from Portland to Canby. One person actually guessed correctly. That person noticed that the rendering of the building that had been shared resembled the location of a Subway that had shut down.

Mike's says that they're n the process of gutting the building and hope to be open in April.

The chain, which trends heavy on 60s diner nostalgia with a focus on burger, shakes, and fries, has been owned by Todd Freeman since he took over after Martin died in a car crash in 1983. Martin's family was originally unsure about what they wanted to do with the restaurants but put their faith in Freeman.

He had worked for Martin since he was 16 and a good relationship with him. Freeman persuaded the family to give him a shot. They let him run the spots until he turned 21 at which point they sold it to them.

Martin started the restaurant after returning from Vietnam where he'd served in the Marines.