RIDGEFIELD, Wash. — Don & Jo’s Drive-In has been a Ridgefield landmark for more than 40 years, serving burgers, shakes and homemade soups while watching the small town around it grow. Even as In-N-Out opened nearby to hours-long lines, the family behind Don & Jo’s says their customers keep coming back.
The restaurant was built in 1968 by Don and Joanne Zumstein, who wanted to create a family-run spot on what was then a quiet corner of Ridgefield. Their son, Mike, worked in the kitchen as a teenager and eventually met Connie, the woman he would marry. Don and Joanne ran the restaurant until 1977, then a different family leased it under a different name until 1982 when Mike and Connie purchased the restaurant. They raised their four children there and have run it ever since.
“My grandparents Don and Joanne built this building that we’re standing in in 1968,” said Operations Manager Courtney Zumstein, who now helps her parents run the business. “They are the namesake — Don and Jo.”…