Kenney's Drive-In 1

Do you remember Kenney's? The yellow buildings, the guy in the little car pointing? Well come on in and look around. Hopefully some old memories will be conjured up, high school days, hamburgers and old times.

RotoBroiler FF spear

I remember thinking, how cool, the first time I visited a Kenney's, and noticed the way they cooked their hamburgers, using an odd looking contraption with a circular grate that spun the burgers and buns under electric broiler elements. Unlike other places, they didn't just wrap up their burgers, instead they put them in little triangular paper pouches. What's this? There wasn't the usual squirt of ketchup and mustard with a pickle on top, instead the entire burger was dipped in some kind of red sauce, with what looked like bits of pickle in it. And the french fries, not the skinny ones used in most hamburger chains. Instead they were the fat crinkle cut ones. Even those came a different way. Instead of being in a bag, they were in a paper tray, wrapped with kitchen paper, and a small wooden spear was included to eat them with so you could keep your fingers clean.

Grand Opening

There wasn't a Kenney's...yet. It was "Biff-Burger". Bill Kenney opened his first Biff-Burger location in Roanoke on Williamson Road in 1958. His first, in Radford Va. had opened the previous year.

Here it was, 4317 Williamson Road. (These pics were taken after the Biff-Burgers in Roanoke had changed to Kenney's).

Click HERE to hear a Biff-Burger, Kenney's radio commercial!

The original Kenney's / Biff was a box style structure that was being used at many of the early Biff-Burger locations.

Another view of the first Williamson Rd. location.

You might wonder as you look through this site why the price on the signs jump around from 19 to 15 cents. The reason is Biff-Burger started out with 19 cent hamburgers. McDonalds came along with their hamburgers priced nationally at 15 cents, so Biff-Burger dropped their price in response. Actually, Bill Kenney dropped his price to 15 cents about a year after opening in Roanoke, before Biff-Burger did. Then in the late '60s the price went up to 19 cents once more in response to a industry-wide increase initiated by McDonald's due to a beef price increase.

But this is the way most people remember Kenney's, their classic A frame building. This was the second Williamson Rd. Kenney's, a bit further out on the far side of Hershberger Rd. (Boxley Hills).

An original Kenney's paper cup, still around 40 years later (eBay, 2007).

This was the first Buena Vista Kenney's. An early version A frame, with exposed service windows in front, and open patios on each side. Now replaced with a contemporary building, this structure no longer stands, but its replacement is still a great place to stop by for some Kenney Burgers.

These early Kenney's buildings featured high ceilings and open kitchens. On close examination of the menu board, you'll notice two lesser known, but fondly remembered items, Bar-B-Cue and Hot Dogs. Bill Kenney told me that the chili for the hot dogs was made on premises, and was a customer favorite.

The Buena Vista Kenney's front and sides were later enclosed to give the customers somewhere warm and dry to go in bad weather. Although this building no longer exists, you can still see a little patch of the original tile floor at a spot in the blacktop.

A look at the Biff-Burger on Wards Rd. in Lynchburg in 1962.

Although the view is partially blocked by another building, you see the same location after it was rebranded a Kenney's. The sign was changed to read Kenney Burger. (1969)

Here's the Kenney's on Brambleton Avenue in Roanoke. A little smaller than some, it was modified from an earlier, short lived ice cream and burger place called Dari-Castle. It stood just to the left of the Domino's Pizza there today (which was originally built as a replacement for the old Kenney's building).

Another "box style" with an angled canopied patio was used at the Orange Ave. N.E. location. The building is now gone, a convenience store - gas station is located on the spot.