Seattle burger stop settles for the south

A Seattle staple is moving down to South King County.

Dick’s Drive-In, an award-winning burger stop, plans to open a new store close to the South Sound.

When Dick’s Drive-In expanded to Edmonds five years ago, they made a promise that they weren’t going to ignore the Eastern and Southern regions forever. Looking to keep that promise, Dick’s opened an online poll for customers to choose the region of their next location titled: “You decide: East or South?”

The poll opened March 6 and closed March 24, with the results announced live on their Facebook March 27. During the voting process, they received feedback from all over the state and the country — they even received a plea to expand to Hawaii.

South won with 60 percent of the 177,645 votes cast. During a phone interview, Dick’s spokesperson Saul Spady says they will listen to their customers and will expand to the south, and are beginning to look for locations in the South. During the Facebook video announcement, Dick’s owner Jim Spady mentioned that some possible cities are Renton, Burien, Des Moines, Kent, Auburn, Federal Way, Tukwila and SeaTac. Jim Spady told the Seattle Times earlier in the week he’s not looking to build further south than Federal Way at this time.

“If there is a development director or mayor out there who wants to give us a call, now is the time,” Jim Spady said.

Dick’s is looking for the best sites possible and have already received a formal resolution invitation from Renton to build the new Dick’s in their community.

Once the new South location is firmly established, the family owned business will begin to gather the resources to expand to another new location in the East.