After years of amusing and enticing commercials, Sonic has recently opened it’s first drive-in restaurant in Peabody. Since it’s grand opening in late August, wait time has been up to four hours and the traffic has stretched from Route 1 onto the highway.
I decided to take a trip over to Sonic to experience the buzz, traffic and food on a Thursday afternoon for lunch. I arrived at Sonic around 11:45, ordered and received my food within 15 minutes.
I ordered the number one, the Sonic Burger, with cheese, hold the onions; I chose tots over fries and their Signature Cherry Limeade to complete my Sonic experience.
My lunch was good and definitely satisfied my craving for Sonic since the commercials aired years ago. If my meal wasn’t so filling I would’ve loved to have tried one of their shakes that I’ve heard so many good things about.
The atmosphere at Sonic is very different from other fast food chains, but makes it unique and fun. There is no indoor seating because everything is set up to be like a drive-in. You pull up and park next to a menu and press a button to order. Shortly after a “carhop” on rollerskates delivers your order to your car.
If the weather permits, you can go to the outdoor patio, order at the stand up menu, and have your meal delivered to your patio seat to enjoy your lunch outdoors.
After lunch I took a walk around the drive-in and talked to other customers to get their take on the Sonic experience.
“This is my first time at Sonic and I’ve only waited for 10 minutes to get in,” says Jonathan Langenburg, 18, from Lynn. “So far my experience has been great.”
“This is my second time coming, and we got right in this time,” says Meredith Beauchesne. “The first time I came was three days after it opened and I waited over an hour with my teenagers and it was crazy!”
“They got everything right and we’re having a great time,” says Virginia Burge who came from Saugus with her husband and two granddaughters.
Overall, Sonic was a great experience and the food was exactly what I expected. I would suggest heading over to Peabody for a bite of what everyone has been raving about.
-Jillian Ducharme, intern