(Funeral) Posse On Broadway

Dick, of Seattle's Dick's, has died.

A sign memorializing Dick’s co-founder Dick Spady is on the window at the Wallingford Dicks.
The Wallingford Dicks location is where it all started on January 28, 1954, when you could
buy a Dick’s hamburger for just 19 cents. (Greg Gilbert/The Seattle Times)

Dick Spady, the namesake and co-founder of beloved local burger chain Dick’s Drive-In, died early Sunday at the age of 92.

“It’s been a good life. I’m very fortunate,” Spady told The Seattle Times on his 90th birthday in October 2013 at the original Dick’s location in Wallingford. He celebrated by handing out birthday cake and signing autographs for fans grateful for decades of burgers and fries.

Mr. Spady opened the Wallingford restaurant on January 28, 1954. (He founded the company with two partners, whom he later bought out.) A hamburger cost 19 cents, and from the very beginning, Dick’s was open until 2 a.m. for those in need of late-night sustenance.

A Seattle Times story marveled at the “novel,” “new-type drive-in restaurant,” where “customers may select packaged, cooked food items to take home or arrange trayed car luncheons,” and “special kitchen equipment will enable high-volume production of a limited menu.”

Mr. Spady ultimately opened seven locations of what became a local institution. After Wallingford came Broadway (established 1955), Holman Road (1960), Lake City (1963) and Queen Anne (1974, and the only location with indoor seating).

Burgers were at least a quarter when this reporter patronized the Broadway location many, many yrs. ago. Many yrs. before Sir Mix-A-Lot shot there.