The Village Drive-In and Tommy's Joynt...
One of Northern California's Last Drive-Ins with a walk-up window and San Francisco's institution float along during a pandemic.
If anyone of Mami’s Maniacs would like to send trinkets, Starbucks gift cards or nail polish:
Mami Maisonet
5960 S Land Park #222
Sacramento, CA 95822
If you want to contribute to this artist in residence, mami’s f’ing expensive ass burgers or Dollar Tree visits:
I finally joined tiktok! And a lot of y’all aren’t on there. What gives?
I don’t know what’s going on. I turned 40 and everything started to hurt. I took my 2012 VW GTI into the dealer to finally figure out once and for all what the issues were. The issues were a lot and now I’m deciding if I can even invest the $8k it’s gonna take to get her back on the road or to send her to the junkyard and live in suburbia without a car. Send a NINE YEAR OLD CAR TO THE JUNKYARD! Imagine that? The next morning I threw my back out. It was so bad that even lying down was uncomfortable and Mami had to come over and take care of me. I propped myself up on my bed in this haphazard way, half limp on flexeril, and Mami sat on the recliner next to my bed while I watched numerous episodes of Bob’s Burgers. I couldn’t move. It was horrible.
After a day of rest and some drugs, Sunday was a little better. But, with every slight movement a twinge would take hold of my back. A reminder that the pain was still in control. On Monday I could move and I almost went swimming, but Mami wasn’t having it. And she was probably right. I tend to push things: my body, brain, relationships. And Mami is a bruja! Whatever she puts out into the universe has a habit of coming to fruition. No, thank you. I’ll keep my tuchus right here on this couch. I did manage to get in some yoga stretches and finally a chance to crack open my book I picked up from the Goodwill last week.
If you’ve been following my social media (or saw the last newsletter) you know Mami and I have an affinity with drive-in eateries. They were our saviors during the pandemic when we didn’t know how the virus was moving and I was being overly protective over Mami; I took over most of her errands that required social closeness.
Even before then, drive-ins have held a special place in my heart as they are a part of my childhood memories. And we’re lucky enough to live in California, birthplace of the drive-in and drive-thru!
Imagine to my surprise when my former SF Chronicle editor - who now works for Resy - asked me if I’d like to contribute something to their special “classics” edition. I could write about any other place I wanted to, as long as I also wrote about Tommy’s Joynt in SF. Done deal.
I wrote about a hometown favorite - Village Drive-In - which was originally
owned by a woman named Mary Rodriguez. The editors took that tidbit out because they probably didn’t think it was important. Of course, that tidbit took me about 72 hours and numerous newspaper archives to track down! Here are the two stories down below, click the photos for the link. I hope you enjoy them. Also - visit your local drive-in right now!!
I loved that you used "bruja" and "tuchus" in the same paragraph.
i do love bob's burgers. the new season started this past sunday, along with a new season of the great north - it's by the same folx and very enjoyable in case you find yourself in need of more cartoons to watch.
when i moved to boston in 2001 i so missed drive thrus - we even had a drive thru liquor store at home in RI. shit, even a parking lot or a place to buy socks that wasn't a $$$ boutique would have been nice. we still live in boston, but in an area that's slightly more suburban. drive thru dunkin donuts! and our favorite boba tea place that put in a walk up window at the start of covid which i hope they keep forever. there's also a drive thru kfc that does a truly wild amount of business. the other morning at 10:45am i saw a line of cars waiting for the employees to take the traffic cones out of the drive thru line so they could get to fried chicken immediately at 11am.
thanks as always for another dispatch, three in one today! i saw the first article did in fact mention mary rodriguez, i wonder if they read your newsletter and put it back in? or you asked them to before it was published and they put it back in. either way, thank you for the history. really would love to try or learn how to make hot pork chicana. and please, a cherry rickey with soft serve. and the tommy joynt website! it's something else. the building, the story, the menu, the prices....dang. once again, wish i could teleport.