Welcome to the World’s Largest Drive-in Restaurant in Atlanta

Still Going Strong After 93 Years the heart of Atlanta, Georgia

Image by Author

What’ll Ya Have? What’ll Ya Have? What’ll Ya Have?

Amid a cacophony of sights, smells, and sounds, the famous catch-phrase rings out above the din. No matter what time you show up at the world’s largest drive-in, at North Avenue in Atlanta, you can be assured of the smell of fried onion rings, and the constant call of What’ll Ya Have?

In 1928, a man named Frank Gordy, with $2,000 in his pocket opened the original Varsity. It was initially called The Yellow Jacket in homage to the Georgia Tech campus it bordered on but swiftly outgrew the name and location. It was moved to the other side of the interstate and renamed The Varsity, covering a full two blocks in downtown Atlanta.

Other locations have opened and closed over the years, but the original is still there and serves over 17,000 people a day with only 800 seats and 600 carhop spaces.

I have only ever been to two of the other locations. The Varsity Junior wasn’t too far away and closer to my home at the time. It was a miniature version of the original complete with carhops and characters. The other time was in one of the newer suburban locations. I walked in and was a bit worried…