The Observer has a nice story on the history of the Pig Stands, which sadly went into bankruptcy in 2006, thus causing the Houston location on Washington to close.

The year was 1921, and America was crazy for bathtub gin, hot jazz, and Henry Ford's Tin Lizzie, which sold a million that year and ruled the roads.

In North Texas, two far-sighted entrepreneurs opened a modest eatery on the busy Dallas-Fort Worth Turnpike that would change the way Americans ate.

Upsetting convention, their tiny "Pig Stand" had no dining room. Instead, it offered speedy curb service to hungry motorists, allowing them to grab a quick bite behind the wheel.

"People with cars are so lazy, they don't want to get out of them," was the sentiment attributed to Jessie G. Kirby, one of the Pig Stand founders.

The somewhat unflattering insight rang true.

[...]

"It was an early, pioneering effort to bring fast food to the motorist. As the first drive-in, it introduced a lot of new elements that later became popular," says historian Dwayne Jones, now executive director of the Galveston Historical Foundation.

"They really started it: the image building. The use of the pig. The use of neon. And very quickly, they adopted a corporate building form, the pagoda, which would be the image of the Pig Stand for the next 20 years," says Jones, who has written a brief history of the chain.

Along the way, the Pig Stand introduced such gastronomical innovations to the national menu as Texas toast, deep-fried onion rings, and a regional tour de force: the chicken-fried steak sandwich.

[...]

Crazy as it sounds, the once-mighty, pioneering chain could make a comeback if the right pieces fall into place, according to [Vincent] Liuzza, the [bankruptcy] trustee.

"I grew up in the restaurant business, and this is a real unique thing. It has a lot more value than the numbers we're talking about today if someone can use the history," Liuzza says.

"I believe there is some restaurant company that will pay several million dollars for the brand. They could build a chain on that name and be the oldest drive-in in the world," he says.

Then, perhaps, this pig could truly fly.