{"id":14,"date":"2026-05-08T10:04:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T10:04:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bouldermovingguide.com\/?p=14"},"modified":"2026-05-08T10:04:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T10:04:17","slug":"before-mustards-last-stand-there-was-bushs-drive-in-a-look-at-boulders-fading-roadside-past","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bouldermovingguide.com\/?p=14","title":{"rendered":"Before Mustard\u2019s Last Stand, there was Bush\u2019s Drive-In \u2014 a look at Boulder\u2019s fading roadside past"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

In the early 1950s, when America\u2019s suburbs boomed and television variety show host Dinah Shore belted out \u201cSee the USA in your Chevrolet,\u201d fast-food and drive-in restaurants popped up everywhere.\u00a0Boulder was no exception. Popular hamburger joints at the time included the Twinburger, then east of Boulder on Arapahoe Avenue.<\/p>\n

Read more Life sentence in Boulder firebombing attack brings emotional day in court<\/a><\/p>\n

Twinburger and others from the 1950s are long gone, but two restaurant buildings from an even earlier era are still recognizable today. Of the two, Mustard\u2019s Last Stand at 1719 Broadway is slated for the wrecking ball.<\/p>\n

Even if the restaurant reopens in another location, the community will be left with a little bit less of our past.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Still standing from 1940 is the building that housed the Nifty-Nix drive-in at 2000 Arapahoe Avenue. The \u201cnix\u201d came from the owner\u2019s name, Henry Mullenix, a butcher from Mississippi. Adjacent to the restaurant was an auto camp called the Nifty Nix Cottages. The auto camp is gone today, but the Nifty-Nix building is still there. In recent years, it served as the home of Daddy Bruce\u2019s Bar-B-Que before becoming Snarf\u2019s Sandwiches today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Even earlier,\u00a0at 1719 12th Street (now Broadway),\u00a0was True\u2019s Thirst Shop, founded in 1930 by Roy and Jessie True. The small root beer parlor was located on the current site of Mustard\u2019s Last Stand. At first, True\u2019s sold only root beer and other soft drinks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

By 1933, the owners had remodeled the building into True\u2019s\u00a0Barrel \u2014 an almost futuristic-themed roadside \u201clunchroom\u201d with an enclosed circular counter.<\/p>\n

In 1940, the \u201cbarrel\u201d was razed and replaced with a new building and a new hamburger shop, Happy Jack\u2019s Oasis. In 1944, Boulder resident Harold Bush leased the restaurant. Then, in 1946, he and his brother Leo bought it and renamed it Bush\u2019s Drive-In. The men alternated shifts and put in long hours, beginning with breakfast and continuing until downtown movie theaters closed in the evenings.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bush\u2019s continued to be popular with high school and college students. Patrons with cars pulled into the parking lot, and a carhop, often on roller skates, took their orders and then skated back to deliver them.<\/p>\n

A remodel in 1955 turned Bush\u2019s Drive-In into the building that more closely resembles Mustard\u2019s Last Stand as it looks today. Bush\u2019s was a family business, with sons Bob and Ron taking over in the 1960s. Boulder High School students stopped by for lunch, and the restaurant always was busy on CU football game days. <\/p>\n

In the early years, hamburgers were 20 cents. Then came the restaurant\u2019s specialty, a \u201cBush Burger.\u201d These hamburger club sandwiches were made with bread, meat, bread, meat and more bread, with lettuce, tomato and cheese wedged inside.<\/p>\n

Read more Boulder affordable senior housing project clears landmarking hurdle on Arapahoe Avenue<\/a><\/p>\n

Bush\u2019s Drive-In and the Nifty-Nix were centrally located near downtown, on or near Arapahoe Avenue. Before the Boulder-Denver Turnpike (now U.S. 36) brought travelers from Denver, Arapahoe Avenue\/Road was the main route into Boulder. <\/p>\n

In 1953, the Twinburger \u201cdriveateria\u201d (as it was called) opened on the south side of Arapahoe, near its intersection with 33rd Street. Twinburger and its surroundings have since been replaced by a strip mall.<\/p>\n

Like fast food restaurants of today, drivers ordered through a speaker and drove to a window to pick up their food. According to a newspaper article from the time, the new drive-in \u201celiminated the disagreeable practice of sounding the horn or blinking the car lights to catch the carhop\u2019s attention.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Twinburger was such a novelty that it was featured in the October 1957 issue of \u201cDrive-In Magazine.\u201d The management claimed that it served each customer in 45 seconds. Supposedly, all drivers had to do was count the cars in line to know how long they would have to wait for their orders.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Bush\u2019s Drive-In continued to serve its Bush Burgers until 1971 when Harvey Lindenberg and Terry Goodhart opened Mustard\u2019s Last Stand in the former Bush\u2019s Drive-In building. Mustard\u2019s specialty then, as it is today, was Chicago-style hotdogs. <\/p>\n

In 1973, the restaurant\u2019s lease was not renewed, and Lindenberg and Goodhart filed suit over a dispute with their landlord.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Around this same time, the city began construction of the Park Central building, completed in 1974. Although Mustard\u2019s was not open at the time, the restaurant\u2019s name remained on the 1719 Broadway building. A newspaper reporter stated that the restaurant had taken its \u201clast stand.\u201d With a new landlord and new partner, Danny Polovin, Lindenberg reopened Mustard\u2019s in 1978.<\/p>\n

The City of Boulder is redeveloping the area and will tear down both the Park Central Building and Mustard\u2019s Last Stand. One of the reasons is that the buildings are in a floodway. Perhaps so, but Mustard\u2019s has also stood the test of time.<\/p>\n

Read more Pick your favorite: Museum of Boulder unveils finalist designs for unofficial city flag<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Bush\u2019s Drive-In to Twinburger, Boulder\u2019s roadside restaurants helped define the city\u2019s postwar car culture.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-history"],"yoast_head":"\nBefore Mustard\u2019s Last Stand, there was Bush\u2019s Drive-In \u2014 a look at Boulder\u2019s fading roadside past - Boulder Moving Guide<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bouldermovingguide.com\/?p=14\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Before Mustard\u2019s Last Stand, there was Bush\u2019s Drive-In \u2014 a look at Boulder\u2019s fading roadside past - 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