From time to time I become the lucky recipient of donated restaurant images. The most recent one is shown above, a charming small photo of a drive-in where the sign looks almost as large as the building.
The question was, where was it? It took quite a bit of sleuthing to find the answer, with searches of on-line resource by both the donor and me.
Luckily for me, the donor also became a researcher and helped nail down the location of the SIP-n-NIP in the photo.
Turns out that Sip-n-Nip was quite a popular name, sometimes with dashes, sometimes with apostrophes, or both. There was a SIP-‘N’-Nip in Tampa FL and a Sip-‘n-Nip in Baton Rouge LA, and St. Petersburg FL, not to mention similarly named drive-ins in Great Bend KS, Rayville LA, Delhi LA, Detroit MI, and Riverside CA. No doubt there were others. Plus, the name is still in use.
There were also Nip-n-Sips all over the country, but when Nip came first that usually meant it was a bar or liquor store.
Drive-in movies were popping up about the same time that the Sip-n-Nip eateries came along. The two went together, as families and teens with cars topped off movie nights with a hamburger and milkshake.
Eventually it became clear that the location shown in the small photo was Dearborn MI, on the corner of Telegraph and Sheridan roads. It was opened in the mid-1940s by brothers Stanley and Theodore Romanuk. [Above: another view of the drive-in, possibly later]
The Romanuk family also ran a cocktail lounge called the Blue Castle.
According to a presentation of the Dearborn Historical Museum, the Dearborn SIP-n-NIP was very popular with school children who stopped there on their way home from school. In the evening families came by for a casual dinner. As the evening wore on it became a gathering place for teens. [Above: Another view, possibly during a vintage car show?]
The Sip-n-Nip closed around 1960, with the widening of Telegraph Road.
That same year, in July, a waitress was accidentally killed at a Sip-n-Nip in Lincoln Park MI. The proprietor of the second Sip-n-Nip was Theordore Romanuk. I was not able to discover when that Sip-n-Nip opened or how long it stayed in business. I think it was on Drexel.
For more on the Dearborn Sip-n-Nip, see the presentation on youtube called Dearborn Then and Now: Sip n’ Nip.
© Jan Whitaker, 2026
It's great to hear from readers and I take time to answer queries. I can't always find what you are looking for, but I do appreciate getting thank yous no matter what the outcome.
Restaurant-ing through history 
Always wonderful info! Thanks
Hi, Jan. It’s Susan from the RWCN. I love these old burger places and I took a few minutes to see if newspapers.com has any additional info you might find helpful. It seems there was also a Sip-n-Nip in Battle Creek. I’ll attach clippings that show when it opened, the original owner’s obit, a name change at some point to Verona Sip-n-Nip but with same location, and the last ad I could find for the place. The website is an excellent repository for the newspapers in its holdings but of course has zero for the papers’ whose archives it doesn’t own. And I couldn’t find any ads for the Dearborn location at all, probably for that reason.
All best,
Susan
Hi Susan, So nice of you to do that. Thanks. I did see those articles too — I subscribe to Newspapers.com also, along with another collection. Couldn’t do my blog without them!
Very interesting Jan. In Winnipeg, Manitoba a nip is a term for a hamburger. The term is still used locally there and you hear different things about the origin. Seeing the image in your notes, perhaps it derived from a similar American usage, itself from the Sip ‘n Nip, or similar business, names. As used in that context, the term clearly comes from nibble. Hamburgers used to be smaller than is usual today, White Castle still does the original style, so a nibble makes sense viewed in this light.
Gary
Gary, That is interesting. I’m not aware of any Canadian connection but it sounds believable that there is one. Otherwise, it really does suggest liquor. There are small plastic bottles of booze that you can buy in the U.S. and they are referred to as nips. But I had never heard of the hamburger connection.
Yes, here is a link from the Canada Takeout site which discusses nip hamburgers at Salisbury House from a historical aspect: Salisbury House: A Winnipeg Takeout Icon Serving Up Nips and Nostalgia – Canada Takeout This explanation states the founder of “Sals” devised the term.
“Sals” still exists in Winnipeg, multiple locations.
I should add I am not 100% certain the term is used generally in Winnipeg to mean a hamburger, but it definitely is still used that way in connection with Sals.
Hi Jan:
Thanks for replying, I replied in turn with further info. Am not sure if it went through this time. If not, do let me know and I’ll send again.
All Best
Gary
Just arrived. Thanks, Gary! Sals sounds like a good place.