Al Green’s Drive-in 

Al Green, his siblings Belle Green and Nate Green, and their father founded Al Green’s Drive-in in 1947. Unable to find a sizeable piece of land in downtown Indianapolis to construct on, Al Green strategically built his restaurant on the far east side of town at 7101 E. Washington Street due to the lack of competition there. A large yellow and green sign with twelve rows of lights illuminated the name “Al Green’s” and directed potential customers to the drive-in. A 1950 issue of the Signs of the Times trade magazine dubbed it the largest free-standing sign in the world. 

The drive-in was known for its giant portions of burgers, fried chicken, sandwiches, tenderloins, shrimp, and homemade root beer. It also featured an outdoor movie screen on which Green showed cartoons and second-run films for free. Other entertainment included live bands and a booth from which local disc jockeys such as Jim Shelton and Easy Gwynn could perform live broadcasts. 

With good food and plenty of free entertainment, Al Greens’ popularity surged. The drive-in employed 20 carhops, enough to serve as many as 400 customers on its busiest days; however, Green realized the drive-in needed a better system for managing the large volume of orders. In 1953, Al Green’s became the first restaurant in the nation to install two-way telephone ordering systems. It had 160 lines serviced by two switchboards and 10 answering phones.  

Despite the popularity of Al Green’s, the state of Indiana closed its main entrance on Washington Street to create a new highway interchange in the mid-1950s. The re-routing of traffic required customers to take a long detour to reach the drive-in and ultimately resulted in a decline in business. Al Green filed a lawsuit against the state and received a settlement. 

Despite losing business, Al Green’s survived for another few decades. People continued to dine at the drive-in for both Al Green’s cooking and unique marketing style. The drive-in was known for its slow service–it could take ten minutes or an hour or more to serve a customer depending on Al Green’s level of attentiveness to the kitchen. He jokingly promised his customers “same day service,” a slogan the drive-in capitalized on by selling merchandise bearing those words. 

Starting in the 1970s, the popularity of drive-in restaurants began to decline nationally, and Al Green’s was no exception. The drive-in stopped showing movies in the 1970s. After the death of Nate Green in 1976, it stopped serving lunch and served dinner during limited hours. By the 1980s, the drive-in stopped providing car service and had spotty hours of operation. Once Al Green retired in 1985, the drive-in closed completely by the early 1990s. Demolition of the building resulted in the site becoming home to a car dealership in 1994.