Mention Whitehaven High School to most people, and within a few minutes anybody who attended that school will bring up fond memories of Chenault’s, an extraordinarily popular drive-in on South Bellevue, just down the street from the school.
The Lauderdale Library contains a pair of postcards, showing this establishment from the inside and the outside. I can’t tell you, exactly, when the place opened, because I just don’t remember. And it’s confusing because there were actually two different Chenault’s, an old one and a new one. Most people seem to remember the new one (shown here).
I know this because I turned up a 1955 Press-Scimitar clipping announcing that Reginald “Rex” Chenault was planning to build a brand-new restaurant at 1400 South Bellevue, to replace his older and smaller establishment right next door. Calling it “an interesting modern building,” the newspaper observed that the new Chenault’s Drive-In “would include a public dining room of exposed brick and wood paneling, a private dining room, a tap room, and an upper level to be rented for private parties.”