Postscript: Drive-In’s Troubles Appear Over

The parking lot still resembles a scene from “American Graffiti.”

Roller-skating carhops in short shorts still deliver burgers and fries at Angelo’s Drive-In Restaurant.

Old-time rock ‘n’ roll still plays on the jukebox while gum-chewing women in poodle skirts and ponytails make eyes at leather-jacketed men running combs through their pompadours.

But the legal furor surrounding Angelo’s at 511 S. State College Blvd. in Anaheim appears to have died down. At least for now.

Responding to complaints from businesses and residents, city officials in October, 1983, filed three misdemeanor criminal charges against Angelo’s, alleging it was a public nuisance and violated zoning regulations. Occasionally, police even barricaded State College Boulevard to divert traffic when crowds got large.

Angelo’s owners, Dennis Williams and Anthony Strammiello, said they faced eviction proceedings in a dispute with their landlord over raising lease payments. And attorneys for owners of the property on which the drive-in and adjoining stores sit already had gone to court to stop car enthusiasts from meeting at Angelo’s on the first Friday of every month.

Success was killing Angelo’s, its attorney lamented.

But today the police barricades, which Strammiello said served only to clog residential streets and irritate homeowners, are gone. The city’s complaints were dismissed last November. The property owners’ civil proceedings were dropped before that. Strammiello said the landlord didn’t pursue the eviction.

“When you’re right you’re right,” Strammiello said. “It cost a lot of legal fees, but it was a matter of principle. I’m not about to tell a customer not to come here simply because he’s driving a 1936 Ford.”

Anaheim Assistant City Atty. Mark Logan said that after two of the misdemeanor charges were dismissed, the city dropped the third “in the interest of justice.” Angelo’s agreed to post signs saying parking is for paying customers only, he said.

The first-Friday gatherings started about four years ago when a car club began meeting at Angelo’s. Strammiello, a former policeman, said he never promoted the meetings, but word of mouth attracted crowds of up to 5,000, even after the car club moved its meetings elsewhere.

Though “it’s been very mellow for the last eight or nine months,” Strammiello said, crowds still are largest that one Friday a month. Nevertheless, Angelo’s loses money on those nights, he said, because of extra costs for security guards, portable restrooms and a cleanup service.

Overall, Angelo’s has prospered because of the things that “made us famous: a little bigger portions, a little different decor, little different type of service,” he said.

The drive-in’s motif has served as a backdrop for television and movie scenes and has been featured in U.S. and foreign magazines. There was renewed interest recently when Angelo’s parking lot was featured in a new TV motorcycle commercial.

“We got calls as far away as Florida regarding franchising,” said Strammiello, who has smaller versions of the restaurant in San Bernardino and Santa Ana. “We’re going to consider it. The ‘50s and ‘60s are very popular today. There’s a good market for our type of thing.”

But Strammiello knows controversy is only as far away as the next complaint.

“We got a call on the last first Friday. This woman said we’re going to burn in hell for having first Friday on Good Friday.”