GET IN LINE! Dave's Drive-In (12 E. Elm St., Chippewa Falls) is officially open, and the result is sweet (and salty, depending on what you order).

No one ever said entrepreneurship was easy (actually, it’s usually the opposite), but I think it’s safe to say, the Fish family has had a unique go at it. While locals have been getting a taste of their drive-in style grub and bellhop service as of July, the Fisher family’s business – Dave’s Drive-In – isn’t exactly what the owners originally intended.

What started as one local family’s plan to continue the root-beer legacy of 12 E. Elm St. – last realized by the former Mary Ann’s Root Beer Stand years ago – has become proof of perseverance and community.

Back in 2023, Anneliese and Bob Fish announced their intent to fix up and reopen the Chippewa Falls root beer stand, and were met by an outpouring of excitement from the community. If the ground could speak, the Elm St. site would have generations’ worth of tales to tell, even as the 100-year-old former root beer stand structure could no longer stand.

As the Fish family announced in 2024 – the year they had originally hoped to be reopening the root beer stand – every route they looked at toward revitalizing the century-old building proved impossible. Its very framing was unsalvageable, crumbling to dust.

At that point, over a year’s worth of efforts had been put into parceling and rezoning, securing permits, working with local architects and contractors, and more. It was, by any account, a genuine effort, and the Fish family could have left it at that.

Instead, they called on the community. In Dec. 2024, the family released a video on its social media asking anyone with a story or a memory made at the former root beer stand, to pass it along. They used those as fuel.

As of the end of July, all that love, sweat, and root beer turned into a realized dream: Dave's Drive-In.  12 E. Elm St. is now home to a gleaming Airstream-style, drive-in eatery dishing up Wisconsin cheese curds, burgers and fish fry, hush puppies, and root beer floats.

Burgers come fully dressed with a side of french fries for $14. Hand-battered cheese curds are dished up with Dave's Dilly Sauce (a must, in my book) for $6/single order or $12/family order. Oh, and root beer is served fountain- and float-style.

CARHOP! Yep, Dave's Drive-In team members bring your grub over, whether you're sitting at one of their picnic tables or wait in your car.

Yellow umbrellas shading several picnic tables mark the corner lot, with a line of locals leading up to the Airstream trailer and its sizzling fryers. I visited the long-anticipated eatery on a quiet afternoon, a dozen other people already sat with their grub. Staff were delivering meals to car windows, delivering ketchup and mustard bottles to seated guests, and kids played with lawn games.

A sucker for root beer, I ordered a float – regular-sized, but I’ll be back for a large – which was promptly brought over in a chilled, frosty mug by a polite teen. The cheese curds were simple and classic, and served more as the vehicle to deliver Dave’s Dilly Sauce to my tastebuds. (I recommend putting a lid on that and taking it home with you. Seriously that good.)

That sealed the deal: After a couple of years and some love, sweat, and root beer, Dave’s Drive-In is officially open, and Chippewa Falls has its root beer stand once again.

Dave's Drive-In also has giant-sized lawn games, as well as kid-sized cornhole, to entertain you and your littles.

Hush puppies are $6/single order or $10/family order, and come with "Mississippi Comeback Sauce."

Dave’s Drive-In (12 E. Elm St., Chippewa Falls) is open Wednesday-Saturday from 11am-8pm and Sunday from 11am-4pm • Keep up with the newly-opened business on Facebook