MILT’S POLAR QUEEN DRIVE-IN
Simply Stated
It’s Milt’s
The grand opening of Milt’s Polar Queen was advertised in The Payson Chronicle’s June 12, 1958 edition.
An April 1967 advertisement in the Eureka Reporter demonstrates the distance people traveled for a bite to eat at Polar Queen, which was known by many in its day and beyond as Milt’s, in Payson. The popular eatery was under the ownership of Milt and Trilma Jarvis’s son Jack Jarvis at this point in time.
Long after the Jarvis family sold Polar Queen, the drive-in Milton Jarvis built by hand and griddle along the old highway in Payson was simply called “Milt’s” by many familiar with its origins and ownership.
Milt’s was the realization of a dream that the Santaquin-born carpenter and brick and block mason had years before undertaking a year-long lease of the Polar Queen at the old Turf club, before building his drive-in next door in 1958. “You know, my grandpa told me one day that he’d always wanted to have a little fast food place,” Milt’s grandson Ron Jarvis told The Payson Chronicle in 2026. He envisioned the place directly south of Memorial Park’s bear cage, on the northwest corner of the present-day Park View School grounds. “[H]e always dreamt of having a little fast food place right there.”
When Ron’s parents, Jack and Lazawn Jarvis took over the Polar Queen in the mid-1960s, the entire family worked to keep everything running, cooked, served, cleaned up after and ready to start again.
Ron was old enough for a job from the beginning. “So I had to go every morning and dump all the garbage cans and clean all the garbage up around on the property, every morning before school. And then my other job was making all the French fries.”
The teenager would handle three gunny sacks of potatoes — or 300 pounds — three days a week. A peeler in the kitchen could handle a bucket full of potatoes at a time. The potatoes were soaked for a little while after to release the starch and keep them from turning brown. Then the hand-cut spuds were deep fried in hot oil they changed daily to maintain a high quality. Scoops of fries were salted and served alone or in the bottom of the small paper sacks shared with a hamburger, with or without cheese.
Milt’s had a drive-up window for autos and a window in the front for walk-up customers. As well, small dining area was located inside the building with a bar for placing orders.
“There were a lot of people that just came to the walk-up window.” When Ron’s sister was old enough, she waited customers out front.
Milt’s Polar Queen used halibut in their fish dishes and they were more fish than breading. Diners could have fish and chips or shrimp and chips. A lot of people loved Polar Queen Seaburgers — fish sandwiches served on square buns made fresh from the bakery in Payson’s downtown district.
“The buns came from Roe’s Bakery and I think the hamburger buns just came from Wonder Bread or someplace like that. We used to have a steak sandwich that I really liked and it was made different than a — it wasn’t a hamburger patty — and they got it from a place in Springville.”
These were served on toast, “and then I think they put some mayo and some pickles and a little bit of lettuce,” with additional condiments by request.
Fried chicken made the menu for a while, courtesy of Lazawn. “I remember that. I don’t think Grandpa did the chicken, but my mom started to do chicken and so I remember over in the house, she was always pressure cooking the chicken and then, I guess, I don’t remember if she breaded it before. I think maybe she breaded it afterward and then they put it in the deep fryer over in the Polar Queen before they served it.”
They made Polar Pups, “and then they had the foot-long hot dogs,” said Ron. The hot dogs were boiled. They kept them in a machine with a little tub of water in the bottom that stayed hot. The little bit of heat and steam it produced billowed up helpfully. “They kept the buns in the top and so it kind of kept the buns nice and soft and everything.”
And they made their own ice cream sandwiches — and their custom Flying Saucers. These came in chocolate “and I think either cherry or strawberry flavored ice cream.”
Eventually, Ron’s mother Lazawn expanded the menu even further to include breakfast and coffee. He remembers this because he had to be there every morning and this was where he’d eat his morning meal. He’d throw an egg or something on the grill or “sometimes I’d have some fish or something, it was like, I can have anything I want here,” he laughed.
As the eatery had throughout the afternoon and evening, Milt’s drew a regular morning bunch. A local signmaker with the surname Kallbacka was among them. “Him and three or four other people would come up there every morning and have their stuff before they went to work,” and discuss the news of the day.
“It was the most popular and the busiest for I think all of the twelve years that my grandpa and my father ran it. And I think it ran really well while Gene and Coleen (Thomas) had it,” Ron said. The Thomases took over the business when Jack and Lazawn Jarvis were ready to retire.
“You know, Grandpa and my mom and dad both opened seven days a week, 7 AM to 10 PM. They worked hard and a lot of hours and it was successful. But I also realize that you have a lot of competition now.”
Payson’s population has grown and the eatery options have expanded since then.
But the craving for a good old Polar Queen burger and fries and the drive-in's range of customized eats at “Milt’s” remains.
