Don Welsh said, growing up in Delaware County, he remembers a Mug Root Beer Drive In. When he came across the concept of Sonic Drive-In while traveling on business, he thought he would love to open a drive in like the one he went to when he was a kid.

When he called Sonic Drive-In about franchising, he said he must have caught them on the right day, because they told him they wanted to expand into the Northeast.

Welsh, franchisee of the East Norriton Sonic Drive-In, said when he opened the Limerick and Morgantown drive-ins, he spoke to a lot of the visitors and found a lot of people were coming from the Norristown and King of Prussia areas.

Welsh owns seven Sonic Drive-Ins in the Philadelphia suburbs: Limerick and Morgantown, as well as Exeter Township, Willow Grove, and three in Lancaster. The East Norriton location is the eighth location for the family owned and operated small business of franchised drive-ins.

Welsh said the new location will be a new prototype for the drive-in restaurant. While it will have the standard car stalls, 16 in all, and an outdoor patio for nice days, it will also feature a double lane drive thru for faster drive thru service. There will also be an enclosed patio that will feature a fireplace, TVs and will be heated. In the wintertime, large doors can be closed, in the warmer months, those same doors can be opened for more outdoor patio space.

Both patios, and the car stalls, will all have carhop service.

The drive-in is planning a mid-January opening. Once open, the drive-in will be open 6 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week.

Right now, the location is hiring. They have a Sonic jobs center open at the Swede Shopping Center and are taking applications Monday through Saturday form 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

They are also holding a big job fair on Dec. 17 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Welsh said all positions are open, they are looking for kitchen help, carhops, switch board operators, and drink specialists, and more.