Retro Roadtrips: The Varsity Drive-In in Atlanta
ELIZABETH saw the Wigwam Village post and also writes in to suggest the Varsity Drive-In in Atlanta. It claims to be the world’s largest. Click through for her note and a link to this classic mega drive-in. Elizabeth writes:
This bring memories flooding back. I stayed in a Wigwam Village in the 50’s. My father was a last minute vacation taker — drove my mother crazy. So, one AUGUST day he came home and announced we were going to Florida to stay a week in the condo owned by his boss. We drove it, of course, from Indiana, in our Ford convertible. On the way down we passed a Wigwam Village in KY, and talked about it the entire trip. So, coming home we stayed there. It was AWFUL — we all agreed. Uncomfortable, damp, moldy, etc. I had asthma as a kid and that night in the cement wigwam really did a number on me. But, it sure was memorable in all respects.Another wonderful retro place is The Varsity Drive-in in Atlanta. It was the most memorable place I managed to see on my one and only business trip to Atlanta in the early 70’s. At the time I think there was only the original location, but now there seem to be many of them. I’d say to really experience The Varsity, hit the downtown location.Elizabeth
Oh, this reminds me, taking a chance – then having a bad stay — well, it makes for a much more memorable story, doesn’t it?!
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Comments
7
Varsity is delish and cheap! My husband and I love to stop there every time we’re driving through Atlanta.
Oh and the peach pie is to-die-for!
The Varsity is wonderful! As a child, we would travel to see my grandparents in Columbus, GA, and we always stopped at the Varsity on the way. They have the best onion rings ever! It’s been many years since I’ve been back through Atlanta, but every time I go, I make a trek to the Varisty.
My husband has terrific memories of the Varsity while growing up in Atlanta. Especially the frosted orange!
I have not been to the Varsity since I was a high school student at Woodward Academy outside Atlanta back in the mid 1970s. I remember being shocked that a “drive-in” could have a multi-story parking garage attached to it. Don’t know if that is still intact, however, since the freeway was massively widened back in the 1980s. The widening may have taken out part of the Varsity’s property.
The real “fun” of going to the Varsity was the ordering process and the internal lingo that the staff used to relay orders.
Varsity. There is one in our town (Athens,GA.). When we relocated here last year this was one of the first places we visited. I must say that every time I am introduced to the legendary hamburger joint of whatever city I am in (Gosh, darn it!) I always miss my hometown favorites: In-And-Out Burger, Tommy’s.
As for Varsity – when in Georgia – folks, you must check it out.
Makes me miss the long-gone hangout of my youth, the Hag-Mart (it was located halfway between Hagerstown, Md. and Martinsburg, W.Va.). Frosted glasses of root beer and hot dogs with their “special sauce.” Yum.