Weird and wonderful drive-thrus from around the world

Either way, the love affair with convenience isn’t just limited to the standard drive-thru. While we’re used to doing drive-thru Macca’s runs or stopping by a bottle-o on the way to a barbeque, there is another world of weird, wonderful, and completely unexpected drive-thrus out there.

‘Get Shucked’ oyster farm and bar, Bruny Island, Tasmania.

Bruny Island is a small island south of Hobart that’s as well-loved for its fresh produce as it is for its wildlife and awe-inspiring landscape. Here you’ll find Australia’s most unexpected drive-thru: oysters! Get Shucked is a locally owned and operated oyster farm that harvests fresh Pacific oysters daily.

If you’ve worked up a thirst in the fresh island air you can stop by their fully licensed oyster bar, but if you’re in a hurry you can swing past the drive-by window to pick up a box of freshly shucked oysters to suck down on your travels. For brave bivalve mollusc lovers, they also sell live oysters and shucking knives. Eep! Their signage plays up to the oyster’s reputation as an aphrodisiac, pitching them as ‘fuel for love’. Perhaps they should also recommend a secluded spot nearby, should the mood strike.

New Orleans, Louisiana, USA.

In Australia, we’re most likely to associate frozen daiquiris with the late 90s/early 00s, when alcopops were de rigueur at house parties and sun-dried tomatoes, focaccias, and wedges served with sweet chilli sauce and sour cream were the latest food trends. Not so in New Orleans, where frozen daiquiris are the city’s unofficial bevvie of choice (the official honour goes to the Sazerac cocktail).

Billed as ‘the city that loves to party’, New Orleans is home to a strong drinking culture and a fondness for frozen beverages that makes sense considering the climate – it’s extremely humid during the summer months. The proliferation of drive-thru daiquiri stands can be attributed to the state’s lax liquor laws, which permit open containers of alcohol in the street but not while driving – when in a vehicle, as long as your drink has a lid and hasn’t been punctured by a straw, you’re in the clear. Drive-thru daiquiri stand proprietors exploit this legal technicality by serving their boozy bevs with sealed straws on the side, and sometimes a piece of sticky tape over the lid’s opening. Crazy!

A Little White Chapel, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.

Shotgun Vegas weddings are a pop-cultural cliché thanks in no small part to this wedding chapel. Or rather, series of wedding chapels. A Little White Chapel has 7 venues in total, including 5 indoor chapels, an outdoor gazebo and ‘Tunnel of Love’ drive-up window for express nuptials. Famed for hosting many a celebrity wedding, the chapel proudly advertises that both Joan Collins and Michael Jordan were married there (not to each other).

Other gossip-mag-worthy marriages include 90s teen heartthrobs Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Prinze Jr., as well as Britney Spears’ 55-hour union with her childhood friend Jason Alexander (not Costanza). Lovers take note – at this particular Vegas chapel, Elvis impersonators don’t officiate weddings, although they’ll serenade you for a fee. You can also hire a pink Cadillac for the ultimate drive-thru ceremony.

Odawara Butsudan Centre, Odawara, Kanagawa prefecture, Japan.

Drive-thrus aren’t commonplace in Japan, but they do exist. International fast food giants are present, as are Japanese street food favourites like takoyaki and gyudon – but drive-thrus aren’t just limited to cheap eats. Mourners can now pay their respects to the dead from their driver’s seats at a recently-opened funeral home in Nagano prefecture that seeks to service the needs of an ageing population and those with mobility issues. While unusual, drive-thru funeral services aren’t unique to Japan – they’ve been around in the US for around a decade.

The award for the most surprising drive-thru is arguably deserved by the Odawara Butsudan Centre, in Odawara, Kanagawa prefecture – a drive-thru Buddhist altar store. Common fixtures in Japanese Buddhist homes, butsudan are small Buddhist altars that look like a cabinet. Ranging from the simple to ornate, they’re used to house religious icons and pray to ancestors. Need one in a hurry? Odawara Buddhist Centre’s drive-thru features display cabinets on both sides, which drivers can browse before placing their order at a window. Purchases are delivered directly to your car, so there’s no need to leave your vehicle.

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