Mel's Drive-In, the 50's style diner on Geary at Beaumont Avenue, will not be demolished for condo development after all, following an effort by the chain's owners and the support of many longtime customers. So reports The Examiner, which notes that the restaurant was slated to be torn down before the property owner was swayed to let it remain in place.

“We’re really excited,” Mel's co-owner Gabriel Mendez told the paper. “Our customers are really happy. The staff is really happy.”

It seems the signatures of 50,000 customers helped the chain's three owners convince the property owner to let them stay. That, and (of course) a 35 percent rent increase. Mel's is famous for a number of reasons, one of which being its starring role in George Lucas's American Graffiti. And although the Geary location was not the one featured in the film, according to the Examiner it is the only one of the chain's original locations in San Francisco that is still in operation.

"With the pro-development and the push to build housing in The City, to be able to pull this off is really amazing,” Mendez said.

For those of you with a memory for this sort of thing, it should be noted that the Geary diner has not had the cockroach problems of the Metreon-adjacent location. So order those diced eggs and ham, eat up, and celebrate the good news! Well, unless you were hoping to move into one of those condos, that is.

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