Legendary Charlie's Drive-In About To Open Again In Wood River

WOOD RIVER - Charlie’s Drive-In in Wood River is about to be back in business.

Chastity and Aaron Niemeyer, and Fred and Jeri Shaw purchased the Charlie’s Drive-In business at 7262 Wood River Avenue in Wood River from the previous owners recently. The plan after some work on the building is to be open in mid-April, Chastity said.

Chastity and Jeri are the main partners in the business. Chastity said the two became friends with their sons involved in East Alton-Wood River wrestling.

“Our sons wrestled together from fifth grade through East Alton-Wood River High School,” she said. “We love East Alton and Wood River. I graduated from high school in 2001.” Aaron Niemeyer Jr. and Jason Shaw were the sons who wrestled together.

The big question is will the famed homemade root beer and mini-burgers be part of the menu, and the answer Chastity says is “yes,” right at the top. Coffee and iced coffees may also be added at some point to the menu, she said.

“We have had a lot of people asking about the root beer and mini burgers,” she said. “We will have the same menu as before in the beginning and likely add a few things eventually. We may add a pulled pork sandwich, which I think would be good.”

Chastity said when she was young, Charlie’s was one of the hottest places in Wood River.

“When I was in school we would leave for lunch and a lot of my friends worked there at Charlie’s,” she said. “So we went there a lot at lunch.”

Jeri Shaw said she is “pretty excited” about opening the restaurant with her good friend.

“I always wanted to open a place like this,” she said. “I am also excited to open this with Chastity. We spent a lot of time together because of wrestling and became good friends. We are going to work well together. I wouldn’t have wanted to go into business with anyone else. We are both hard workers and have the same goals.”

More will be announced when an official opening date is set for Charlie’s Drive-In in April.

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