Don Hall's: the drive-in that became a dining dynasty

1946 — present

Meat, land, and a drive-in: Don Hall came out of the meat business with a piece of land and opened a drive-in on Bluffton Road in 1946. It is still trading as Hall's Original Drive-In at 1502 Bluffton Road, and it seeded the largest family restaurant group in the city's history — a dozen Fort Wayne businesses at the count Fort Wayne Magazine gives, still family-run into the next generations. The flagship is Don Hall's Old Gas House, serving since 1958 in the city's 1887 gas-works building at 305 East Superior Street: a steak-and-prime-rib house in the brick plant that once made Fort Wayne's gas. Upstairs in the same building sits Takaoka of Japan, the group's Japanese steakhouse, where showmen chefs cook at hibachi tables; Visit Fort Wayne's dining record calls Takaoka one of the first Japanese restaurants in Fort Wayne, and its name is the city's first sister city, Takaoka, Toyama — the sister-city agreement was signed in 1977, and the restaurant's tableside theater has been a birthday-and-anniversary institution for decades of Fort Wayne families since. The group's own archaeology is part of the record: carhop service at the Original Drive-In, discontinued in 1968, was restored in the $5 million renovation that reopened the drive-in in 2018. Around the Gas House the family added The Deck, a seasonal riverfront eatery on the St. Marys, and across the city the Hollywood Drive-In on Lima Road, the Coventry tavern, a bakery and catering operation, and a guesthouse hotel — a restaurant group that grew the way the city did, one neighborhood at a time.

Sources:

1. Visit Fort Wayne, "Don Hall's Dining Legacy" (published January 2012, revised October 2026) — the meat-business start, the 1946 drive-in, the Gas House, Takaoka upstairs.
2. Fort Wayne Magazine / FortWayne.com, "The Family Way" — the dozen-business count, the 2018 reopening and $5 million renovation, carhop service discontinued 1968 and restored, co-owner Ben Hall on the business.
3. Waynedale News (March 2019) — the Bluffton Road original of 1946, the cakes and catering move, the group's locations as of that year.
4. Visit Fort Wayne, "Date Night Dining in Fort Wayne" (June 2025) — Takaoka as one of the first Japanese restaurants in Fort Wayne; ACGSI's Allen County timeline — the Takaoka sister-city agreement of 1977.