East King County – Dick’s Drive-Ins announced today that, in addition to launching a Food Truck this fall, Dick’s has selected East King County for the location to build its next new restaurant. “Our customers on the Eastside have been waiting a very long time,” said Jasmine Donovan, President of Dick’s Drive-Ins. “We’re excited to finally start the official search.”
The eastside territory includes cities as far north as Bothell, as far south as Newcastle and as far east as Redmond, Issaquah and Sammamish. Just last week, Dick’s announced the launch of a new Food Truck coming this fall and a poll for customers to vote on where it goes first. The top five cities to get a visit from the new Food Truck were announced earlier today.
Donovan says the new mini, mobile version of its iconic restaurant will help scout potential home cities and sites on the Eastside. “Places where the Food Truck serves the most customers on the Eastside are places where we’ll seriously look for a permanent Eastside location,” she said.
The local, family owned company does not have a specific timeline for when the new location will open. “It depends a lot on how long it takes us to find a good piece of real estate for our new location and whether we can find it at the right price,” said Donovan. “We paid $1 million for almost an acre of land in Edmonds, and less than that for 2 acres of land in Kent. We know land on the Eastside is very expensive right now. Although, we are prepared to spend more for a good site, we are not sure we can afford the land that we need. We are asking for help from our Eastside customers and cities to help us find an affordable location.” Customers with specific property suggestions or tips should go to ddir.com/Eastside.
Both of the properties for Dick’s newest locations, Edmonds (2011) and Kent (2018), were not officially available on the market when the company started searching for those locations after online customer polls showed the most support north (in 2010) and south (in 2017). “Our customers gave us great leads and the city mayors, council members and development directors were exceptionally helpful in connecting us to great potential sites,” said Donovan.
In addition to offering some of Seattle’s best burgers, fries and shakes since 1954, Dick’s is known for offering the best wages and benefits in the fast food industry. “We have been truly blessed to continue to be open and serving customers in this time of uncertainty,” said Donovan. “We want to continue to create jobs and new opportunities for people in the communities we serve. And we want to bring those jobs to a new community, hopefully on the Eastside.” A new Dick’s Drive-In location creates about 50 new jobs that include benefits such as 100% employer paid health insurance for all employees and $28,000 scholarships for employees working at least 20 hours a week.