Mel Weiss and Harold Dobbs founded the first Mel's Drive-In in San Francisco in 1947, according to Wikipedia. It grew to several locations before the original chain wound down in the 1970s.
The 1963 protests
Starting Oct. 16, 1963, the Ad Hoc Committee to End Discrimination organized pickets and sit-ins at Mel's restaurants in San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley. Wikipedia says the restaurants hired Black workers as cooks but didn't let them work "up front" where white customers could see them. More than 100 protesters were arrested. The picketing ended when Dobbs, then a San Francisco supervisor, settled with the protesters and began allowing Black workers in front.
American Graffiti
George Lucas chose a Mel's at 140 South Van Ness Ave. as a location for his 1973 film American Graffiti. It appears in the opening scene and behind the opening credits, set to "Rock Around the Clock." Universal later licensed the name to build replica Mel's restaurants in its theme parks.
Two chains
In 1985, Weiss's son Steven Weiss and partner Donald Wagstaff opened a new generation of Mel's Drive-Ins. A family split produced two chains. Steven kept the Mel's Drive-In name, and his father called his restaurants Original Mels. The elder Weiss sold his company in 1994.
Going national
Mel's Drive-In's site now promotes a location at 152 2nd Ave. N. in Nashville, in a building that once housed B.B. King's Blues Club. The site highlights a headline saying that after 78 years, the classic San Francisco diner is going national.