VIGNETTE > Mill Valley’s First Fast Food

C’s Drive In – 1960s

In 1954, Caesar Taverna opened C’s Drive-In on Miller Avenue below Reed. Hamburgers cost 19 cents. Tam High students hung out there. On Saturday nights, hot rods filled the parking lot. Business declined in 1970 when a Jack-in-the-Box opened a block up Miller. In 1971, Taverna sold out to Pete Harmon of Utah who replaced C’s Drive-In with a Kentucky Fried Chicken Drive-In. In September 2002, a drive-up customer asked for extra biscuits with his order of fried chicken. An employee brought the order to his car for payment. The order included two bags of marijuana instead of extra biscuits. The outraged customer renewed his demand for extra biscuits, returned the marijuana and later called the Mill Valley police. Undercover law enforcement personnel subsequently obtained marijuana repeatedly from the employee, making most purchases during school hours. KFC drew many Tam High students at lunch-time and after school. A month later, Carlos Leonel Ayala, 26, of Vallejo was arrested on his way to work at KFC. In 2013, KFC closed for good owing to declining business.

KFC now abandoned