Dick’s Drive-In has expanded well outside its original domain of Seattle—a new location in Federal Way opened in July 2023 and an upcoming restaurant is planned for Everett. But Spokane? Not so much. Then how do you explain the uncanny similarities between Seattle’s favorite burger chain and a restaurant with the same name all the way across the state, in the shadow of Interstate 90?

Spokane’s own Dick’s Hamburgers has an open-air layout, much like the Dick’s locations that pepper the Seattle area. Other common traits: midcentury architecture with ample drive-up parking and banks of glass windows so customers can see the staff hard at work on a very limited menu. Outside, an enormous sign hearkens back to car culture’s heyday. The Dick’s Spokane sign advertises “hamburgers by the bagful.” In Seattle, telling someone to “eat a bag of Dick’s” is both a great idea and the joke that never gets old.

Not that they’re identical. The Dick’s in Spokane has a larger menu than the famously pared-down slate at Seattle Dick’s. They serve corn dogs and fishwiches. And...fried chicken by the pail? Individual pan pizzas? Even pie pockets, lifted from the McDonald's school of portable dessert.

Still, the confusion is understandable. “Customers send us feedback about that location on a regular basis,” says Jasmine Donovan, president and CFO of Dick’s Drive-In and granddaughter of founder Dick Spady. To further the confusion, she points out, a lot of people in Seattle refer to her family’s enterprise colloquially as “Dick’s burgers,” which is the official name of its Eastern Washington doppelgänger.

Donovan confirmed, the two businesses have never been connected in any way. We don’t have another Taco Time situation on our hands. (But what it is with Washington state and fast-food confusion?)

Dick’s Hamburgers never responded to my outreach. But according to Spokane Historical, a public history project out of Eastern Washington University, the current Dick’s Hamburgers opened in 1954—the same year as Seattle Dick’s—under the name Kirk’s. Newspaper archives say founder Elmer “Abe” Miller named the hamburger stand after an employee and that it was Spokane’s first “true fast-food restaurant.”

A few years later the spot became Panda Self-Service Drive-In Restaurant. In 1964, Miller and his wife, Dorothy, reopened it with the current googie-style building and a giant sign aimed at traffic on I-90, which was being constructed through the middle of town. The Millers named the new spot Dick’s Hamburgers, after their eldest son, but the giant panda (who appears to be feeding a burger to a chicken?) remains a part of Dick’s iconic roadside sign.

Jasmine Donovan has fuzzy long-ago memories of visiting Spokane with her family when she was about 12. “I remember, we went and saw the place.” Her dad, Jim Spady, bought some food for the family to eat.

Dick’s Hamburgers founder Abe Miller passed away in 2007. Longtime employee Lynda Peterson co-owns the restaurant with the Millers’ younger son, Kevin. In this Inlander piece, she recalls an era of cruising, late nights, and $1.49 burgers that sounds awfully familiar. So does the level of affection Spokane harbors for this throwback burger stand.

But Dick’s Hamburgers serves food in Styrofoam containers—a clear sign you’re far from Seattle. The fries are thicker. Their version of a Dick’s Deluxe is known as the Whammy burger. Maybe the biggest sign this Dick’s is a different company: You can specify which toppings you want on your hamburger.