Drive-In May Be Driven Out by Builder of Fillmore Mall

It is a small-town carhop joint, a cheap stop for families on trips and, for the past 35 years, a hangout for teen-agers on cruise nights.

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Dino’s Frosty Mug in Fillmore has survived at least one major earthquake and the loss of most of its local clientele to more trendy fast-food restaurants such as McDonald’s and Carl’s Jr. But now the little burger shop is facing extinction:

The developer of a major shopping center wants its site for an access lane.

Watt Commercial Development, which co-owns the property where Dino’s is located, says it needs the land to build an entrance lane to the 81,000-square-foot shopping center going up next to Dino’s.

“I’m devastated. I’m not only losing my business, but it will be replaced by a traffic lane,” said Duke Bradbury, who now leases the restaurant where he has worked for 20 years. “It’s humiliating, in a way.”

Located along California 126, Dino’s, a former A&W; restaurant, features 11 carhop stalls where attendants still bring food to the customers at their vehicles.

Dino’s, with its worn-down cement counters and paint-peeling walls, many of which are covered with a red-road dust, is a comforting place to some of its customers.

“I’ve stopped here to eat at least once a month in the last 13 years,” said Tom Wickman, 55, a truck driver from Arizona. “It’s like being in another place in another time. And they have the best hamburger anywhere.”

Although the drive-in has served hamburgers and hot-dogs to Fillmore residents since 1960, locals do not seem to mourn its possible death.

“Losing one [fast-food restaurant] is not going to make a big dent, because we have many others,” said Fillmore Mayor Linda Brewster.

Dorothy Haase, a lifelong Fillmore resident and a local historian, said Dino’s has shifted over the years from serving local residents to serving motorists along California 126.

“It’s no longer a place that locals will miss,” Haase said. “It used to be a place where locals hang out a lot, but now most of their customers are highway travelers.”

Although Bradbury has only 90 days to leave the building that houses Dino’s, he said he plans to challenge in court the developer’s right to push him out.

Since he was 16, Bradbury has been working in the restaurant--doing everything from cooking to washing dishes.

Bradbury leased the restaurant from its owner, Dean Fahl, in 1993. Although Fahl owned Dino’s, he did not own the land it was built on.

About five months ago, Bradbury said, he learned that Fahl had sold the building to the landowner, who went into a partnership with the developer of Balden Towne Plaza.

Julie Split, a spokeswoman for Watt Commercial Development, acknowledged that the company needs the Dino’s site for the access lane, and said Bradbury has no legal right to be on the property.

Bradbury said that if the courts deny his request to keep the restaurant operating at the Ventura Street site, he will have to close Dino’s and sell the restaurant’s equipment.

“It would be an economic disaster to try to build a carhop anywhere around here,” Bradbury said. “The charm of this place is that it’s part of the 1960s nostalgia. Some people come here just because it reminds them of the past.”

Although many local residents still come by, it will be out-of-town people who will miss the place, said Beverly Fisher, who has managed the restaurant for the past 12 years.

“We have people from all over the country who come here every year during their vacation,” Fisher said. “If we didn’t have out-of-town customers, we wouldn’t be here.”