Ashraf Khalil

The drive-thru emerged from the convergence of American car culture and fast food, developing from drive-in eateries into a modern restaurant format in the late 1940s. Red’s Giant Hamburg in Missouri and In-N-Out Burger in California are cited as competing origin points, while the concept spread widely across the United States by the 1960s and reached Europe in Dublin in 1985. Drive-thrus influenced restaurant menus, vehicle design and service technology, evolving into multi-lane operations and becoming a prominent feature of American culture.