This oral history interview with Steven P. Yaw was conducted by Curtis Johnson on November 12, 1980, at Yaw’s Restaurant in Portland, Oregon. The interview was conducted as part of the Drive-in Restaurants of Portland Oral History Project, a series of interviews that Johnson conducted about the history of Portland drive-ins, with a particular emphasis on Tik-Tok and Yaw's Top Notch.

In this interview, Yaw discusses the family business, Yaw’s Top Notch drive-in restaurant in Portland. He talks about working at the restaurant beginning at age 11. He discusses running Yaw’s Top Notch on his own and the changes he made to the business, including discontinuing car service. He talks about maintaining the building and equipment, using computers to manage payroll and finances, and how the restaurant business has changed since his grandfather, W.P. Yaw, first opened Yaw’s in the 1920s. He discusses Yaw’s use of off-duty police officers to control traffic. He talks about managing the restaurant employees and his relationship with the business community in the Hollywood neighborhood of Portland. He then responds to criticisms of how he ran Yaw’s. He closes the interview by talking about the menu at Yaw’s and the restaurant’s clientele.