Drive-In Reopens Doors
The Drive-In offers 1957 prices to celebrate event
Florence Morning News - September 8, 2007
By Charles Tomlinson
The Drive-In is harking back to the 1950s as the restaurant celebrates its grand reopening a half-century after the serving its first 20-cent hot dogs, among many other classic menu items.
The restaurant’s employees and customers, as well as several state senators and representatives from the Pee Dee, attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony Friday to officially reopen the new building on East Palmetto Street.
The drive-in moved in January to a new building next door to the smaller building its owners had leased for 36 years. The downtown restaurant celebrated its 50th anniversary in May.
“The opportunity to rebuild the drive-in on the original site ... is really special to us,” said Pauline Kremydas, who owns the restaurant along with her brother, George Nikolakakos.
“Our parents came from Greece, with nothing, to fulfill the American dream,” and the family has a chance to carry on with that dream by keeping the restaurant a success, Kremydas said.
In 1997, she and her brother bought the 301 Drive-In, which has been family-run since its founding.
The drive-in’s owners and its 36 employees are “having a lot of fun” celebrating the grand reopening, Kremydas said.
The restaurant is offering specials, including the 20-cent hot dogs, at their original 1957 prices during the reopening, Kremydas said.
Customers also heard tunes from the ‘50s and ‘60s throughout the day Friday.
The corner of Dargan and Palmetto streets has been redone to include a business plaza as well as the new drive-in.
“It’s been a nice adventure,” Kremydas said.
The changes to The Drive-In are happening amid an effort to revitalize Florence’s downtown.
“The downtown has been just a blessing for us,” family spokesman Nick Kremydas, Pauline Kremydas’ husband, said. “We see the future development and the positive steps our local leaders have taken to revitalize the downtown area, and we said we wanted to be part of that.”
Florence’s downtown will be home to the Francis Marion University Center for the Performing Arts as well as the relocated Florence Little Theatre.
In addition, Turner, Padget, Graham & Laney, P.A., will be the anchor tenant in a new downtown business center scheduled to open in 2008, and the Fitness Forum on Elm Street is undergoing major renovations.