Swensons' Galley Boy, other drive-in treats to arrive soon in central Ohio

Columbus, get ready for the Galley Boy.

Swensons, the venerable Akron-based drive-in chain is opening a Dublin-area restaurant Nov. 9. It will be Swensons' 11th location when it opens and its first outside northeast Ohio. A second location here, on Gemini Parkway in the Polaris area, might open by the end of the year. Company officials are also exploring other central Ohio locations, but would not identify them.

The chain's signature burger, the Galley Boy, with its double patties, two sauces (tartar and barbecue), a slice of cheese, charred bun, and an olive tacked on top, is likely to find a lot of fans here.

"I think they do it so well that they will find success, especially in Dublin," said Bob Welcher, president of Restaurant Consultants Inc. "There is a bit of nostalgia that's popular now, and I think Swensons hits that note."

Swensons has a menu from a simpler time. Burgers, grilled chicken, sloppy Joes, BLTs, even fried bologna.

Though incredibly popular in Akron and Canton, where the chain was founded in 1934, Swensons has approached growth carefully. The company owns its stores and still does many things, like grinding its own beef every day, the same way it has since the beginning.

"That was really important," said Crystal Griffith, Swensons director of marketing. "We had to figure out how we were going to make that work here."

Unlike regional dishes like Cincinnati chili, Swensons' traditional drive-in menu will translate to new markets such as central Ohio, Welcher said. There is no dining room at a Swensons. Customers pull into spots, leave their lights on, and a server will dash to the vehicle. Carhops actually sprint around the parking lot yelling, "hot-hot," to warn each other as they maneuver around corners and cars and in and out of the kitchen.

All of the food is made to order, so it's fast, but not McDonald's drive-through fast.

"We don't have a heat-lamp lounge," Griffith said. "That's not happening here."

The Dublin-area store, technically in Columbus at 7490 Sawmill Road, has 64 parking spots. Griffith said the site is roughly the same size and design of newer Swensons in northeast Ohio. The menu is also the same; nothing has been added for central Ohio palates, though Griffith did mention that a hot fudge and peanut butter milkshake is as close as one might get to a buckeye flavor.

"We can mix any of the milkshake flavors together," she said. "And we can put anything we have in the kitchen on a burger. Just ask."

Welcher wondered if the lack of a dining room might hurt the chain in Columbus, give the region's dearth of drive-ins and abundance of competition. While people may eat in their cars quite a bit, they don't often sit in a restaurant parking lot while scarfing a meal.

"Inside seating would help, but it isn't who they are," Welcher said. "There is a real novelty with (Swensons), people will want to try it and see what's it like."

jmalone@dispatch.com

@j_d_malone