New owner of Carl’s Drive-In says he’s sticking with its old-school methods

The new owner of the historic Carl’s Drive-In in Brentwood, Missouri, said in an interview he’s staying old-fashioned in the restaurant’s style, including reviving old recipes.

David Kraemer, who purchased the Route 66 diner a few weeks ago from Mike Franklin, told the Riverfront Times of St. Louis about how he’s reviving a method from longtime operator Frank Cunetto:

“We’re going back to Frank’s recipe for the grilled onions,” Kraemer says. “If you asked for grilled onions anytime in the past six years, you would’ve gotten sautéed onions browned on the grill. However, the way they used to do it — and it’s so good it’s a game-changer — is that they used to smash diced onions into the burger, then flip it. So when it cooked, the flavor really got in there. When it’s cooked right like that, it’s amazing. Apparently they got a lot of blowback when the old owner took that away because he didn’t like them like that, so we know that everyone will be excited. We’re taking things as far back as they will go and as original as original gets.”

Kraemer said he soon will remodel the restaurant that the newspaper reported would be “more about restoring the restaurant to its past glory than modernizing it,” and he “is insistent on keeping the old charm and feel of the space.”

Kraemer grew up in Wildwood, Missouri, but became interested in Carl’s Drive-In when he moved to nearby Kirkwood about six years ago and began dining there several days a week.

Carl’s remains a treasure of the old Manchester Road alignment of Route 66 in the St. Louis region. Below is a 10-year-old video from Roamin’ Rich Dinkela when Cunetto ran it:

Norma Maret Bolin’s well-researched “Route 66 St. Louis” book contains a lot of interesting history about Carl’s, including:

• The building was built in the 1920s as a gas station.
• It became the Foot Long Hot Dog Company in the mid-1930s, then the Good Food Drive Inn during the 1950s.
• It became Carl’s Drive-In in 1959.
• Carl’s uses the original recipe to make its draft root beer, which reputedly became the basis behind the nationally distributed IBC Root Beer.

(Image of Carl’s Drive-In in Brentwood, Missouri, by Paul Sableman via Flickr)