Food has always been a secondary interest to racers whose focus narrows to winning the race or setting records. On the dry lakes or the Bonneville Salt Flats you ate what you brought with you or could scrounge up out of a food stand. You didn't care about the taste; eating was simply a necessary evil and time waster like all bodily functions. We joked when we ordered a track steak, which was simply an unappetizing hot dog. We drank what was available as long as there was nothing swimming around in the cup. Food became more important when we left the dry lakes, oval tracks or drag strips and picked up our girlfriends for the obligatory weekend dances. The ladies demanded a higher quality of cuisine and that meant the local diner or drive-in when 'greasy spoon' food wasn't as vilified as it is today. In the 1930's the hangouts were the local cafes and diners and you would never think about frequenting any place but your special eatery. Young racers protected their turf and that meant their local hangouts. If you wanted to rile someone up you went into a diner and told everyone there to 'drag out your worthless heaps (gow jobs)' and see if they could beat you in a street race.

In the 1940s the diners, barbecue joints, cafes, burger and hot dog stands began to morph into drive-in restaurants where you could eat inside or stay in your car and have car hops take your order. There was nothing like having your girlfriend at your side and friends in the back seat as cute young carhop girls on roller skates came up to take your order. The food tasted better because of the ambiance. The jukeboxes roared the favorite melodies of the day and there was always room to do a little jitterbugging. The 1950's was the heyday of the drive-in restaurants, Elvis was the King, the Great Depression, World War II and the Korean War were over and we hadn't encountered Vietnam or civil disobedience yet. Life was good and we considered the time to be the Golden Age of auto racing. There would never be a time like this again and we thought it would never end. But it did. Fast food restaurants took over from the diners and drive-ins simply because we were too busy for the tomfoolery of a slower age. We were married now with families that were growing and it now took two jobs to pay the bills. Trips to the old drive-in restaurants were replaced by a quick stop on our way home from work at the bland fast food places.

Can you remember them all? They first showed up in the '40's, gained strength in the '50's and matured in the '60's. They had names like McDonald's, Pup 'N Taco, Tommy's, In 'N Out, Del Taco, Taco Bell, Arby's, Wienerschnitzel, Burger King, Naugles, IHOP, Wendy's, et al.' They developed into chains and spread throughout the nation and into foreign countries. There were also regional fast food outlets that choose not to expand. You could get almost anything that you wanted; American burgers and fries, hot dogs and corn dogs, Mexican burritos and tacos, Greek falafel and lamb dishes, pancakes and waffles, Asian dishes, German bratwursts and more. Some fast food restaurants served food almost as good as the old cafes, diners and drive-ins, but on average the food wasn't much better than the old 'track steaks' of the 1930's or the food we carted out to the dry lakes that were desiccated by the heat. In a few cases a fast food stand actually stood out for tasty food and for something else: that ambiance that was missing from the old drive-ins. One such restaurant was the Naugles chain of Mexican food. It served food that you could smell half a block away and they encouraged young people to 'hang out' just like in the good old days. Then Del Taco bought up Naugles, changed all the stores over to Del Taco, changed the menu and encouraged young people to buy and leave. Fast food means moving people in and out, not keeping them around. Profit margins are smaller and lingering crowds are not good for business.

This didn't sit well for young people coming of age in the 1990s. It seemed like everything they liked was closing, changing, moving in a direction they didn't like. But what could you do? Del Taco owned Naugles and not only changed the name but the taste and the ambiance. It was gone; simply a memory of something you loved and could no longer have back. So it seemed, anyway. But never underestimate the desire of a taste, a memory, an era and especially of hope. Don Quixote jousted at windmills thinking they were giants. A young man by the name of Christian Michael Ziebarth was a modern day Don Quixote, a dreamer who wouldn't let go of the past, and as he researched one of his favorite old restaurants he found that Del Taco had let the Naugles name and recipes go unused. It's a funny thing about possession of things that you own: if you don't use them or seem to want them the law says that you have abandoned your possessions. Ziebarth petitioned the courts and after a long legal battle proved that Del Taco had abandoned Naugles and its famous old Mexican food recipes. The courts awarded the rights to the name Naugles to Ziebarth and he was on his way to realizing his dreams.

It is one thing to win a court battle, but it's altogether another difficult problem to bring back an old brand. Ziebarth found two partners, received a lot of help from friends and relatives and, by using the modern forms of electronic media such as Facebook, Twitter, email, etc, he got the word out that a test kitchen had been set up and they were going to resurrect all the old recipes, service and flavorful appeal of the Naugles brand. But he had no way to comprehend the outpouring of legions of fans of this fast food brand.' He opened his test kitchen in Fountain Valley, California, and was overwhelmed by the number of people who showed up. The partners soon ran out of food and had to close down and come up with a new plan. They reopened on the weekends to avoid traffic problems and on the day I dropped by they had taken 195 orders in only seven hours that they were open. My wife and I came by late and saw the staff say they were closed, but we could smell the food from the parking lot and we weren't going to be dissuaded. In we went and received a warm welcome from other fans of Naugles; complete strangers and yet they welcomed us with open arms. The ambiance was back, but would the food be as good as we expected?

Ziebarth came out from the kitchen and welcomed us and I asked him a few questions. "We've been so busy I can't remember this day," he said with a glazed look on his face. "Let me introduce you to one of my partners, Josh Maxwell," he added. Josh, a friendly and outgoing man readily answered my questions. "There are three partners in the new Naugles restaurant, Christian Ziebarth, Dan Dvorak and myself.We are training new employees Raylene Hermosillo, Noemi and Yvonne Trevino, and Thach (pronounced "Tack") Nguyen on this shift. We served more food today than we estimated. Our original intentions were for a soft opening so that we could test the equipment and see how it works, train the staff and test our recipes to see if they come close to the original Naugles food. Then the crowds began showing up and we couldn't turn them away. "This store was meant to be just a test kitchen. The customers told us it tastes exactly like the old Naugles. We even had a man, Kurt Heiden, visit us from Boston, Massachusetts, to get some of our food," Josh told me.

"As soon our project got onto Facebook people began to spread the word and within an hour or so the crowds began to show up; it just exploded on us. Today we have been so busy that we don't even notice what is happening. Our Saturday traffic was huge with about 600 people walking through our doors. Our goal is to establish a commissary so that we can standardize our food quality. When that is done we will begin to franchise Naugles stores, but we will keep this as a closed partnership. We have no plans for a public stock sell," Josh added. Though the test kitchen had closed there were still fans showing up and they managed to find a way in.

I interviewed a family, Lori and James Davenport who came from Anaheim Hills with their sons Thomas and Brady. "I liked the taco salad and the combo cup was tasty," Lori said. "I also liked the beans, cheese and red sauce; it's a burrito in a cup. They even made a special taco for my son with a crunchy taco shell," she added. James told me, "I used to go to all the Naugles restaurants when they were in business. I liked the chicken best, it is as good or better than anything you can get in any fast food restaurants today."

Eric Calhoun heard about the test kitchen in the Orange County Register newspaper and traveled from Los Angeles to get in on the semi-opening. "I was expecting the food to be as good as the Naugles food back in the day. I was pleasantly surprised that it was so delicious. The meat and cheese burrito and the soft shelled beef tacos were really good; much better than I expected. Naugles would be a perfect opportunity to expand into the Los Angeles market," Eric concluded. Terry and Lisa Gepford from Huntington Beach also read about the new restaurant in the Register food section. Terry remembered, "I hung out at the Naugles on Cerritos and Western in Anaheim. My friend had an El Camino and we would crowd as many people in the back as we could and go to Naugles. It was our place. The food is flavorful; you don't need sauces to enjoy. They brought back the great nostalgic taste of the old Naugles," Terry said. Lisa added, ""The food is delicious. I like a crispy taco shell though. I think the new Naugles will do well as a chain. The burrito was dry like the original and not greasy. I had the combination and it was nice to see a burrito without grease coming through the shell. The hot sauces were mild and did not take away from the flavor. I tasted the food and not the sauces," Lisa concluded.

Just then a lady and her son came through the door and when told the restaurant was closed said, "I fought rush hour traffic to get here and I'm not leaving without some old Naugles food," and Ziebarth and his partners grinned, reopened the kitchen and filled her order. Ziebarth's fiance, Jannette Rivera, came in and sat down and talked to my wife, Epi Parks, discussing the upcoming wedding while sampling the food. I should add that Linda Ziebarth, Christian's mother, gives constant support and praise for her son's entrepreneurial endeavors. Mike and Susan Stevens and their daughters Allison and Elizabeth were also customers. Mike is an old Naugles fan but this was the first time for Susan and her daughters. He told me, "We live in Cypress but I grew up in Long Beach and went to the old Naugles restaurant located near Long Beach Wilson High School. It was on Los Coyotes Diagonal and Ximeno Streets. I hung out there with my friends in my '74 Nova. The food at the new Naugles is just as good as the original. They need to bring back the Hot Fudge Shake, though. I had the meat and cheese burrito, combo burrito (beef, beans and cheese), chicken tacos and the bean and cheese burrito. The food here is much better than at Del Taco or Taco Bell and Naugles is a fun place to eat out at," he stated.

Tim and Karen Miller are friends of Ziebarth and they came from close by in Fountain Valley. "Oh, we heard about Naugles by word-of-mouth and then we told all of our friends," they told me. "I lived in Roy, Utah, and the Naugles was our local hangout," Tim added. "I went to Fountain Valley High School and the store on Brookhurst is where all my friends and I gathered," Karen beamed. My wife and I had noticed the aroma of the food before we even entered the test kitchen. "That's what I remember," said Epi. We ordered our food and sat down to taste test it. The beef taco had a slight greasy feel to the crispy shell and I asked Josh if this was normal. "No, we are aiming for a crisp and greaseless shell, but the rush of people has forced us to cook faster than we anticipated," he said. The meat and cheese has a soft, creamy texture to the filling that was pleasant to the taste. It was moist and tasty, unlike other fast Mexican foods. The beef and cheese burrito had a subdued spicy taste that did not require any hot sauces to bring out the flavor. At other Mexican restaurants the tastelessness of the filling requires lots of spices, but not here at Naugles. I decided not to use hot sauce on the food. Instead I tried the hot sauces separately. The 'Original Naugles Red Sauce' is mild with a slight aftertaste. The green sauce is very mild with no aftertaste though you can taste the chilies. The Red Inferno hot sauce leaves a slight burning aftertaste in the throat but is not as hot as some other restaurant sauces. Ziebarth told me that their sauces are mixed as close to the original Naugles recipes as possible.

Time will tell how successful the new Naugles will become and if it will develop that youthful ambiance that the old drive-ins and diners had. My wife and I enjoyed our dining experience, made better by the interaction of perfect strangers telling each other what it was like in the past and what it could be like in the future. Look for a Naugles to reopen in your area and don't just eat there; hang out with your friends and best gal as well.

Gone Racin' is at [email protected].