Why this beloved 41-year-old Bay Area drive-thru isn't planning to pay their rent

Ben Franks, a family-owned drive-thru located in Redwood City, has been a mid-peninsula institution for 41 years and spawned 14 franchises that have all since closed. Ben Franks, a family-owned drive-thru located in Redwood City, has been a mid-peninsula institution for 41 years and spawned 14 franchises that have all since closed. Photo: Grant Marek Photo: Grant Marek Image 1 of / 8 Caption Close Why this beloved 41-year-old Bay Area drive-thru isn't planning to pay their rent 1 / 8 Back to Gallery

The California Restaurant Association says as many as 30,000 of the state’s 90,000 restaurants could close as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

So which 60,000 survive?

Well, you’d think a family-owned Bay Area institution designed specifically for takeout would have a fighting chance.

Pun-tastic Ben Franks opened in 1979 on El Camino Real inside of an oddly-shaped, 200-square-foot pre-fab building with a drive-thru, a takeout window and a whole lot of hot dogs. Founded by the son of Stanley Hiller, who designed the world's first successful coaxial helicopter at the age of 15, the now-iconic Redwood City restaurant sold enough dogs, burgers, and shakes to open 14 drive-thru franchises in the ‘80s and ‘90s in two different states — including one in San Francisco owned by four-time 49ers Super Bowl champion Keena Turner.

Forty-one years later, the original Ben Franks is the only one still open. And while it stood the test of time, Arvind Jain — who bought the business in 2006 — has no idea if it will stand the test of a pandemic.

“We’re living with a minimal amount in the bank, I’m only paying the most urgent bills, and just conserving cash,” says Jain, who immigrated to the U.S. from India in 1979. “I’m not paying rent yet, I want to see what the government does first.”

Washington passed a $2.2 trillion economic relief package on Friday that’s supposed to provide loans, grants and tax breaks to businesses big and small, and California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Tuesday providing a 90-day extension on paying sales tax to the state, entirely aimed at helping small businesses. One thing that hasn’t been settled on as of yet, though, is commercial evictions — while some counties have banned them, San Mateo County isn’t one of them.

“Business is down 40% at least. With this kind of traffic, I can keep this place alive,” says Jain. “But if it dips below this…”

Jain, 59, doesn’t finish the sentence, because we all know how it finishes at this point.

“I don’t have the kind of savings where I could carry this on my own,” he says. “I’d be robbed of my livelihood if this went down any more. And Redwood City would be robbed of an institution.

“As a student, I used to work in restaurants,” says Jain, who has an MBA and a masters in computer science, which he used to start a Burlingame telecom software startup that he sold in 2000. “I’ve never heard such good compliments for a place as this one.”

Longevity is a big reason for the public endearment, as are hot dogs sourced from 90-year-old San Francisco purveyor Evergood Fine Foods. But really, there’s just something about a restaurant named “Ben Franks” that hits you with a cartoon drawing of Ben Franklin and the phrase “The Classic American Hot Dog” on their signage — it’s hard not to smile as you drive by. It’s hard not to appreciate the simplicity. Or the sandwich board on the sidewalk with two balloons tied to it that advertises 93-cent water.

Those compliments and that appreciation haven’t stopped during the Bay Area’s new shelter-in-place reality.

“Most people are just saying ‘thanks for staying open,’” Jain says. “And sure, they’re saying it while they’re pulling up a little farther away from the window than usual. But you see all the closed restaurants, and really we’re performing a good function. We’re part of the community. We’re doing the right thing. Let’s hope the community keeps supporting us.”

On the Saturday following the second straight week of shelter-in-place orders from the Bay Area, there are four cars in line at the drive-thru at 12 p.m. Everything is immaculately clean inside of their cramped kitchen quarters, all of the employees are wearing gloves and there’s a “TIPS” cup at the drive-thru window that’s fuller than normal.

“We’ve had employees for 25, 18, 15 years. They’ll retire with Ben Franks, most of them,” Jain says. “Most of them have been here longer than I have. Morale is as good as it can be so far, they all just say, ‘God, I’m just glad we have our jobs.’”

A sign on the drive-thru window thoroughly details all of the precautions Ben Franks is taking in light of the pandemic in a bulleted list, and finishes the note simply with this:

“Thank you for trusting Ben Franks.”

Now Ben Franks, which sits right next to Caltrain’s Whipple Avenue crossing, is just hoping their landlord — SamTrans — does the same.

“I’m hoping they’ll understand,” Jain says. “I’m being positive.”

Grant Marek is the Editorial Director of SFGATE. Email: grant.marek@sfgate.com | Twitter: @grant_marek