Hayden Drive-In

About

An old soda fountain diner that will be celebrating it's 65th anniversary this year, 2013.

Story

FAMOUS PREMIUM BARBEQUE AND PINK LEMONADE
Legend has it that the local Catholic priest taught Roy his barbeque sauce recipe and that Roy bought the pink lemonade recipe from a vendor while visiting the Indiana State Fair. Wherever they originated they remain the same as the original today...sixty-five years later. Roy always referred and advertised "The World's Best BBQ!" Current owners have added a choice of a slighter hotter version of the original recipe for those who are looking for a little more kick to their sauce.
While most Southern barbeque sandwiches are made from pulled pork or smoked butts...Hayden's is not. Roy originally advertised them as "smoked ham barbeque sandwiches." Hayden's smokes whole on the bone hams and then slices the meat off and chops it. The sauce is added to the meat and served on a toasted bun with the traditional southern chopped dry cabbage...making for a premium and much more tasty barbeque sandwich than the more common pulled pork.
The barbeque sauce is made fresh everyday. It is a sweet vinegar and tomato based sauce that is cooked down for hours each day to get it to just the right consistency.
The pink lemonades are blended from a cherry sauce that is made on site together with lemon juice and just the right amount of shaved ice and water that is mixed together in a malt mixer. The shaved ice is an integral part of the recipe as it has to break down just right in the malt mixer to become the pink lemonade that has been enjoyed by thousands at Hayden's for many generations.

MAUD STREET ICE STATION
Roy and Lillian Hayden moved to Poplar Bluff in the mid 1940's from the state of Indiana. Roy was the manager of the Criterion Theatre and later the Rodgers Theatre. The McPheeters Family opened "The Drive-Inn" in July of 1947 at 807 Maud Street in the Arkansas-Missouri Ice Company's "Ice Station" building. The company's ice plant was at the Railroad Depot. The painted lettering can still be seen on the front of the one hundred year old building. The Haydens bought the Drive-Inn in July 1948 and renamed it "Hayden's Drive-Inn" thus, beginning a sixty-five year old Poplar Bluff tradition.
The first dining room with a couple of tables and the counter seating made up the entire service area in those days. There was a walk up window with curb service. Carhops took the orders and served the food on trays that rested on the car windows. There were picnic tables and yellow string lights hung between the large trees around the parking lot.
In the days when the building was the Ice Station customers drove their horse and wagons through that front area where the blocks of ice were loaded from them to take home for their ice boxes. The Haydens enclosed that area for the dining and counter areas and the Botkins later made the addition of the west dining area years later. The kitchen area that used to be for storing the ice blocks has thirty-two inch thick brick walls that provided for insulation in those days and now makes for the best storm shelter in the area.

ABOUT ROY AND LILLIAN HAYDEN
As anyone who frequented Hayden's in the day remembers Roy and Lillian were a lively couple!! Roy ran things out front and Lillian ran things in the kitchen. But things didn't always go smooth as they entrenched on each other's territory. Their contentious relationship resulted in many interesting stories about their arguments in the daily operation of Hayden's...from loud arguments to flying steakburger patties, ladders being kicked out from under one another, to swash buckling butcher knives being swung about!
Everyone remembers Lillian was a heavy smoker. It was a sight to see how she could get the longest stem of cigarette ash to hang off the end of a lit cigarette dangling from the corner of her mouth while all the time flipping burgers and building barbeques! In later years when she couldn't stand to be seperated from her little lap dogs she kept one snuggled under her arm while working the grill...something that the local Health Department didn't shine to as they closed them down on several occasions.

A POPLAR BLUFF TRADITION...
For many years Hayden's was the place to go on a date. Through the years many couples have returned and told their stories...some even got engaged to marry while on a date at Hayden's. It's a regular meeting place and stop for generations of Poplar Bluff High School reunion groups. Almost everyone who has lived in Poplar Bluff and moved away makes it a regular stop when back in town. When greeting some former residents in town for Thanksgiving recently they quickly said..."Don't tell our family you saw us...we haven't been home yet, we came straight to Hayden's!"
Roy Hayden continued to operate the Drive-Inn, alone, after Lillian's death. They had no children to take it over so he talked local attorney, Jim Markel and his wife Linda, into taking it over at one point. After just a short time it was back to Roy. He later sold to his good friends Jesse and Jewel Botkins. Jess passed away just three years later and Jewel continued to run Hayden's for almost thirty years. When Jewel decided to retire she sold to the current owners John and Jeanette Clark. The manager Tawana Barger has worked at Hayden's for the last twenty-six years! She knows her barbeque and pink lemonade! And the tradition continues.....