Bill's Drive-In Has Not Changed. That Is the Entire Point.
Since 1939, the mustard-colored building on East Michigan Avenue has been serving root beer and hot dogs from the same window.
The building at 1292 East Michigan Avenue in Ypsilanti is small, painted mustard yellow, and does not look like it has been updated since Eisenhower was in office. That is because it has not needed to be. Bill's Drive-In opened in 1939 and has been serving hot dogs, burgers, and house-made root beer from the same window for the better part of a century.1Opening date and operational history per the restaurant's own signage and local Ypsilanti business records.
The Root Beer
Order the root beer first. It arrives in a chilled glass mug, and it is better than every root beer you have had from a bottle or a can. The recipe, according to the restaurant, has not changed since the beginning. It is sweet but not syrupy, with a bite that commercial root beer lost decades ago when manufacturers switched to high-fructose corn syrup and artificial flavoring. A mug costs around $3. A float, with vanilla ice cream, costs a little more and is the correct summer order.2Pricing approximate as of summer 2025.
I have ordered root beer at Bill's on at least a dozen occasions, and the consistency is the kind of thing you stop noticing until you try root beer somewhere else and realize how far the baseline has fallen.
The Food
Hot dogs are the signature, served on a steamed bun with mustard and onions. They are simple, inexpensive, and exactly what a drive-in hot dog should be. A combo with fries and a root beer runs around $8. Burgers are similarly straightforward: grilled patties, standard toppings, served fast.
Onion rings deserve a separate mention. Battered, fried to order, and better than most sit-down restaurants charge twice as much for. Coney dogs, with chili and onions, are the order for anyone who grew up in Michigan and knows what the word "coney" means.
The Experience
Bill's still runs carhop service. Pull into the lot, flash your lights, and someone comes to your car to take your order and bring it back on a tray. This is not a novelty. It is how the restaurant was designed to operate, and it still operates that way.
On a warm evening, the parking lot fills with people eating in their cars, standing by their trucks, or sitting at the few picnic tables. Kids with root beer. Couples splitting onion rings. The scene looks the same in June as it does in September. When the Michigan weather turns cold, Bill's closes for the season and reopens in the spring, the way drive-ins have always worked.
Michigan Avenue's Anchor
East Michigan Avenue in Ypsilanti is a stretch that has seen more change than most corridors in Washtenaw County. Businesses come and go. Bill's remains. The Bomber is less than a mile west on the same road, and between the two of them, Michigan Avenue has a pair of institutions that have survived everything the decades have thrown at them.
Bill's does not serve craft cocktails. There is no online ordering system. The menu fits on a board you can read from your car. A meal for two costs less than a single entree at most Ann Arbor restaurants. That simplicity is not a limitation. It is the model, and it has worked for over eighty years.
Bill's Drive-In is at 1292 E Michigan Ave, Ypsilanti. Seasonal hours, typically spring through fall. Cash preferred. Carhop service.