Drive-in dining and roller skating carhops might become more common sights in the Spokane area soon.


A Spokane franchisee of Sonic Drive-In, a 3,000-restaurant chain thats popular in the South and Midwest, plans to develop its first outlet here early next year.


Sonic Drive-Ins serve hamburgers, chicken, and other fast-food fare, as well as an assortment of dessert drinks. The chains corporate headquarters are located in Oklahoma City.


The franchisee here, The Clarus Group LLC, might open between 10 and 20 Sonic Drive-Ins in the Inland Northwest eventually, says Preston Hawkins, a Pasadena, Calif.-based businessman who owns Clarus Group with his stepson, Patrick Vollmer, of Spokane.


Vollmer says Clarus Group has leased land at the northwest corner of Sharp Avenue and Ruby Street, just west of the Gonzaga University campus, where it plans to develop its first restaurant here.


Early next year, the company will demolish a pair of buildings on that corneran eight-unit apartment building and a small used-car structureand will build a 1,700-square-foot restaurant structure. The eatery is scheduled to open late next spring and is expected to be the first Sonic Drive-In in Washington state, Vollmer says.


Like most Sonic Drive-In restaurants, the planned eatery here wont have indoor seating. It will have 23 parking slots, each equipped with a menu display and an intercom terminal with which a customer can order. The restaurant also will have a drive-through lane and patio seating for roughly 40 people.


The restaurant will employ between 30 and 40 people, including wait staff who will wear roller skates while delivering orders to customers. Vollmer says hell oversee day-to-day operations.


Marshall Clark, of Clark Pacific Real Estate Co., of Spokane, handled the land lease for the planned eatery.


Hawkins says Clarus Groups franchise territory includes Eastern Washington and North Idaho, extending west to Moses Lake, south to Lewiston, north to Bonners Ferry, and east to the Idaho-Montana border.


Clarus Group is looking at other potential restaurant sites, but Hawkins says the company doesnt have any additional eateries planned at this time. The company wants to see how the first restaurant performs before moving ahead with additional locations.


Hawkins says the company likely will open an average of two restaurants a year and probably will end up with anywhere from 10 to 20 Inland Northwest Sonic Drive-In outlets. Of those, six to 12 eateries would be in the Spokane area.