This circa 1955 photograph shows the original Tops Drive Inn at 40 N. Glebe Road in Arlington, Virginia — the flagship location of what would become one of the Washington, D.C. metro area’s most beloved restaurant chains. Founded in 1953 by James J. Mathews, this modest 15-seat restaurant grew into an 18-location empire that defined drive-in dining culture across Northern Virginia and the greater D.C. region throughout the 1950s and 1960s.
Tops Drive Inn was best known for two things: its signature “Sir Loiner” — a double-decker hamburger that predated McDonald’s Big Mac — and its innovative “Teletrays,” a drive-in ordering system that let customers order food without leaving their cars. The Teletrays made Tops a popular destination for families and teenagers alike, embodying the car-centric culture that was rapidly transforming Arlington’s commercial landscape during the postwar boom.
Mathews had a notable friendship with Colonel Harland Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken. Through this connection, Mathews secured exclusive franchise rights to serve the Colonel’s recipe chicken throughout the D.C. metro area, and later served on KFC’s board of directors after Sanders retired. In 1967, Mathews merged Tops with Gino’s Hamburgers, a Maryland-based chain, and the Marriott Corporation subsequently acquired Gino’s in 1972, effectively ending the Tops brand. Today, the original Glebe Road location at Route 50 is home to a McDonald’s — still a burger joint, but a far cry from the locally-owned drive-in that once defined the corner.
