A Dick’s Drive-In will be closer to Tacoma than ever before. It opens this week.

The first Dick’s Drive-In Restaurant south of Seattle opens this week.

The Kent Dick’s location opens 10 a.m. Wednesday. It will be the seventh burger restaurant for the 64-year-old Seattle chain.

Tacoma isn’t on the expansion list, which means the Kent location is probably as close as Tacomans will get to a Dick’s in Pierce County.

The restaurant in Kent’s West Hill neighborhood broke ground in April. The last time Dick’s opened a new restaurant was in Edmonds in 2011.

The Kent site was decided by a public vote. The burger chain asked its diners in an online poll if it should open south or east of Seattle.

The south-end location won with 60 percent of the 170,000 votes cast.

Expect long lines at Wednesday’s opening. Also expect that there will be a whole bunch of people bumped to the front of the line, as the chain has been giving away “orange tickets” promising preferential line placement.

The legendary burger chain will stick to its no-frills menu of burgers, fries, shakes and sodas. Predictably, there will be a crush of diners in the early days. For that reason, store managers will limit the quantities that diners can order.

Dick’s Drive-In Restaurant — Kent

Where: 24220 Pacific Highway S., Kent

Info: ddir.com

Opening: 10 a.m. Wednesday (Dec. 12)

This story was originally published December 11, 2018 at 12:00 PM.