Los Gatos Weekly-Times

Old-time Los Gatans could order deluxe hamburgers and other home-style fare for less than a dollar at drive-in restaurants.

Picture from the Past

John S. Baggerly

Los Gatos drive-in diner served hearty food at down-home prices

Thanks to the sentimental trait of collecting mementos like dance invitations or ticket stubs to a favorite movie, some readers (like this writer) still retain a copy of a Los Gatos 5-Spot menu.

One menu collector is Donna Horn (now Donna Peterson), a 1949 graduate of Los Gatos High School and recently retired from teaching at Daves Avenue. She and brother Jim Horn were born to the late Pete and Emma Horn, he being the owner/operator of a grocery store at the southeast corner of Los Gatos Boulevard and Shannon Road.

As for the 5-Spot menu, today's reproduction is slightly less than actual size; the original is printed in blue except for a red background behind the word "spot."

Inside are two pages of "read 'em and weep" prices: Tender steak sandwich, 60 cents; hamburger deluxe, 40 cents; chicken or beef pot pie, 45 cents; sandwiches, plain or toasted, 25-40 cents. Top price was $l.25 for a "choice rib steak." Salads, sandwiches, drinks, juices and desserts were equally low in price, and the same went for the breakfast, short-order items and fountain specials.

The Los Gatos and Campbell 5-Spots are long gone. However, when reducing the cover at Kinko's, technician Marcella Barrientes, a San Jose resident, reported that the San Jose 5-Spot is still operating on S. First Street.

The Los Gatos 5-Spot opened in the late 1930s at the southeast corner of Saratoga and Santa Cruz avenues, the site of the Los Gatos Cemetery before it moved in 1887 to Los Gatos-Almaden Road. The site of the 5-Spot--after the cemetery moved--had been the wooded location of cottages for itinerants who worked at the Hunt Brothers Cannery at the northeast corner of Saratoga and Santa Cruz avenues.

Diners at drive-in restaurants could remain in their autos, and waitresses, called "carhops," delivered orders on an ingenious tray that locked onto the driver's door sill and remained level. In other cities, waitresses used roller skates to speed up service.

The first manager of the Los Gatos 5-Spot, a Mr. Bierman, hired Barbara Gibson as his first waitress. She is the sister of Jack and Don Gibson of Los Gatos. Readers have met her in previous columns as my better half, better speller and better memory.

Another drive-in took shape on E. Main Street at the corner of Church and E. Main streets. Druggist and property owner W. John Whisenant built the facility for a man named Horton. The location later became the site of Ed Moore's first automobile agency here.

Today the 5-Spot tradition carries on in the form of many quick food service "spots" surrounded by ample parking.

Most recently, the old 5-Spot location was much in the news and in letters to the editor. Some locals objected to the name Double D's Sports Grille, thinking it was a flip reference to a bra size. Not so. The owners are brothers Darin and Dean Devincenzi.

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