Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Mike and Virginia Fries prepare a hamburger order for a drive-thru customer at Edna's Drive-In Thursday, Oct. 7. The Fries have listed Edna's for sale and plan to retire when the business is sold.
DAVENPORT-Mike and Virginia Fries remember buying Edna's Drive-In in May 1992 not knowing when they'd re-open its doors after it was closed for 18 months following Edna Jackson's passing. They decided the highest customer demand would be during Pioneer Days, so they opened July 16, 1992.
That was a decision Virginia Fries remembers regretting, but now looks back at with a laugh.
"We were so swamped, and we hadn't practiced how we would work together," she said. "That was the most stressed I've been in my life."
In the 29 years of ownership since, the Fries have seen thousands and thousands of customers come from all over the state and country to eat a burger and fries, drink a milkshake and take a break from their travels. Now, the Harrington couple has listed the Drive-In for sale through Katz Realty as they plan to retire.
The Fries made ownership of Edna's a family affair, as all five of their children worked there at some point in their upbringing... "whether they wanted to or not," Virginia Fries said.
Now, their 15-year-old grandson, Will Fries, is an employee.
"If you count my parents who were in on it at the beginning, it's four generations," Mike Fries said.
The family element of the business led to the motto formed by the Fries: "Our family serving your family makes the difference."
Countless Lincoln County residents have worked for the Fries in the last 30 years.
"There's quite a few still here in town," Virginia Fries said. "They know who they are."
Mike Fries said those who worked at Edna's became known as "Edna's celebrities" as a joke, because after working there for a while, employees became recognizable.
"You could be walking through Safeway and someone you don't know might stop you and say, 'hey, don't you work at Edna's?'" he quipped.
"If you weren't having fun when you were working here, it was your own fault," he added.
The Edna's recognition extends outside of Davenport. The Fries remember when their son, Austin, got in a motorcycle accident and had to go into a Spokane ICU, the nurses asked what he did for work.
When he said he worked for Edna's Drive-In in Davenport, the nurses said they loved the spot.
"Everywhere we go, it seems like people know who we are," Mike Fries said.
The location of Edna's lent itself to a frequent stop for road-trippers heading every which way.
"There's always some connection here," Virginia Fries said. "It's halfway between Grand Coulee and Spokane, so it's a meeting point for a lot of people."
She added a more sobering part of the business is realizing that many split families do parental exchanges with their children at Edna's, given its central location.
But visitors come from all over.
"We have loyal customers in Odessa, Fruitland and Spokane," Virginia Fries said. "News crews came from New York once. That was exciting."
"And of course, people come by on their way to Lake Roosevelt all the time," she added. "For a lot of people, it's a family vacation tradition to stop at Edna's."
Edna's has also fared better during the COVID-19 pandemic than the Fries originally expected through generous donations and support from the community. The lobby has remained closed throughout the pandemic, and worker counts have been reduced, which the Fries say has increased efficiency and kept service times reasonable.
"We've stayed supported during COVID," Virginia Fries. "We never thought we'd be considered essential."
The Fries have considered retiring for a few years, and plan to do so when the business sells. They don't plan to retire before selling, so Edna's won't close before a potential sale. They recognize that could happen in the next week, or could take multiple years.
"We asked the kids if they wanted to buy it, but they weren't interested in taking it over," Virginia Fries said. "They have their own businesses, and they've been around Edna's for almost 30 years, too."
They hope to sell to a buyer who will keep the building Edna's Drive-In, as it has been since the 1950s. They'll then spend retirement at the home outside Harrington Mike Fries has lived in his whole life.
"I think a lot of people have a negative view of flipping hamburgers, but I think of it as something to be proud of if you work hard enough," Virginia Fries said. "We've been doing it for almost 30 years."
Drew Lawson is the editor of the Davenport Times. He is a graduate of Eastern Washington University.
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