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Historic place

The Big Orange Drive-In

1301 W Kennedy Blvd, Tampa, FL

A 24-hour carhop drive-in nicknamed the Big Orange, known for its orange-pants uniforms, lost its liquor license in 1956.

📅 1931–1957🏛️ RestaurantDemolished
Open on the mapSlide back to 1931

The story

It opened in 1931 as the Frosty Morning Shop at Grand Central and Willow, selling orange drinks, sandwiches and food novelties, and was nicknamed the Big Orange Drive In that same year. It served customers in their cars around the clock and delivered by employees on Cushman scooters. A beer garden opened in the house next door.

In 1936 the carhops wore orange pants and white tops, the first uniform pants worn by women in Tampa, which had to be custom made. It gained a liquor license in 1935. For two years in the late 1930s a slot machine sat on site, since they were legal only briefly. After ownership changes in 1938 and 1954, the manager was fined in 1955 for selling liquor after hours, and the license was revoked in 1956. Records indicate it was demolished in 1957.

What's There Now

Tampa Fire Department Station No. 3 and its parking lot, with a drainage area, occupy the site.

Everything that was here

Did you know?

The carhops' orange pants were the first uniform pants worn by women in Tampa.
A pianist played requests from under a palm tree.
Fire Station No. 3 moved to the site in 1986.

Nearby history

Valencia Garden

811 W Kennedy Blvd · 463 m away
Manuel Beiro's Spanish restaurant ran 82 years, survived a 1966 fire and closed when the University of Tampa bought the

University of Tampa

401 W Kennedy Blvd · 863 m away
Tampa Bay Junior College moved into the closed hotel in August 1933 and grew into the University of Tampa.

Palladium Ballroom

205 W Cass St · 1.1 km away
A downtown dance hall that opened with a New Year's Eve party in 1957 and was gone by 1965, the year Curtis Hixon Hall o

Fort Homer W. Hesterly Armory

522 N Howard Ave · 1.2 km away
A New Deal armory in West Tampa where Elvis played at least four times in 1955 and 1956, now a Jewish Community Center.

Tampa Tribune Building (Parker Street plant)

202 S Parker St · 1.2 km away
The Tribune moved here in 1975, lost its paper to the Tampa Bay Times in 2016, and the riverfront plant became 400 apart

Curtis Hixon Hall

600 Ashley Dr · 1.3 km away
Tampa's riverfront arena hosted Elvis, Led Zeppelin and the Grateful Dead before it was torn down in 1993.

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Sourceshttps://www.oldtampaphotos.com/the-big-orange-drivein-restaurant