Eatery Learns Drive-in Nostalgia Is Now Passe

If Angelo’s Hamburgers makes you think of pretty carhops in short shorts roller-skating around tables and among shiny hot rods--think again.

The Anaheim City Council voted 3 to 1 Tuesday to revoke a permit that allows the popular eatery at 221 N. Beach Blvd. to operate as a walk-up restaurant. That means the restaurant now will be able to operate only as a closed-in, sit-down restaurant.

To Angelo’s owners, that takes away “a very successful concept” of attracting customers with the lure of nostalgia.

“The spirit of cooperation doesn’t exist on the city’s part,” said Dennis Strammiello, who said the council’s vote Tuesday came as no surprise. The city and the restaurant’s owners have feuded for years over another Angelo’s restaurant, on State College Boulevard, that some have criticized as a source of traffic, litter and noise.

Tuesday’s vote was the latest in a series of skirmishes over the Angelo’s on Beach Boulevard. City officials have said the restaurant has been operating since it opened in March as a drive-in, drive-through restaurant without proper permits, though the restaurant now has requests for such permits before the city’s Planning Commission.

Angelo’s owners have argued that a restaurant has been operated at the Beach Boulevard site as a drive-in, drive-through establishment through several owners for the past decade without city interference.

Deputy City Atty. Malcom E. Slaughter said a previous owner illegally constructed a drive-through window in 1978 or 1979 and that Angelo’s added the drive-in concept without proper city permits when it opened.

During two council hearings last month, some nearby residents and businesses complained of screeching tires, loud music, increased congestion and other problems they attributed to Angelo’s.