Skyline Drive-in

• Skyline Drive-in website (CitySearch)
• Location: NW Portland (Cornell & Skyline)
• Cost to fill up two people: About $18

If you’re looking for the old-fashioned carhop skating to your rolled-down window, this ain’t it, although there’s a mural of same painted in the stalls where that used to happen.

But in every other respect, Skyline Drive-in is a 50s throwback, vinyl booths, kitsch and all. Probably the coolest part is that this isn’t a “theme” restaurant, where decorators carefully calibrated the poodle skirt reproductions. Skyline just grew that way.They serve the maltshop comfort food you’d expect, primarily burgers and dogs, and do a nice job of it. You’ll find patty melts and chili dogs, meat loaf, clam strips and such, with overly generous breakfasts until 11. If your order doesn’t come between a bun, there’ll be a roller-buttered hamburger bun on the side. And they specialize in ice cream drinks, i.e., milkshakes, malteds and floats.

None of it’s bad, although I’d argue that Burgerville makes a tastier burger. And it’s kinda fun to sit in a red vinyl booth, look out over the tree-lined valley below, and listen to the patrons talk about the good old days.