Route 66 Eats & Treats

Eating Along the Mother Road

Restaurants, Cafes, Diners, Dives & Drive Ins

Ephemera, loosely defined is bits of paper that were not intended to be saved.  I have lots of ephemera.  Intend to share so you will have lots of ephemera, too!  And you might find a good place to eat along the Mother Road.

This morning while sorting through yet another pile of papers that should have been filed in one way or another years ago, I found a few menus and business cards from places on Route 66 where we've stopped.  The scary part is that I know there is an even bigger stack of these somewhere in the building.   One thing at a time!  If I scan them and put them here, at least I'll know where a few of these are and perhaps those of you reading will enjoy them, too.

Earl's Family Restaurant

Since 1947

1400 East 66 Avenue - Gallup, New Mexico

Menu, business card & photo from our February 2009 Route 66 Adventure

This menu is a very short version that we grabbed when we had dinner at Earl's in February 2009.  The real menu is of monstrous proportions and has traditional American and Mexican fare.  Lots of it.  Seriously, it's a huge menu, one of those places where it is hard to narrow down what you'd like to eat because you're faced with too many choices.  Native Americans are allowed to show their crafts to people who are dining.  If you're not into this & prefer uninterrupted dining, you can tell them when you're seated that you don't want anyone coming to your table to show you their wares, but it seems like this would take away at least half the fun of dining at Earl's.  We had about 10 different people show us their jewelry while we ate.  I didn't buy anything because nothing caught my eye and goodness knows, I have more than my fair share of beautiful Native American Indian jewelry.  We had some nice chats with the roving vendors and it was easy enough to say "No Thanks" and they moved on to the next table of diners.

Earl's info posted August 1, 2010

El Cafecito

820 E Santa Fe Avenue  Grants, New Mexico

El Cafecito menu from February 2010 Route 66 Adventure

We've been to El Cafecito on Route 66 in Grants, New Mexico several times, the latest being in February 2010.  El Cafecito is a family owned restaurant and we note that many of the customers are locals, that is always a good thing.  Very friendly people, I feel right at home here.   I love their enchiladas - try them when you go to El Cafecito.  We've also tried the Fritta Frutta dessert, if only because it had such an odd name and we had never had one and I'm glad we did. But we come back here for the enchiladas which they even make for Frank without onions.   The last time we ate here, there were big decadent chocolate frosted brownies sitting on the counter when we paid our check.  Of course, being a chocoholic, a couple brownies went out the door with us.  The brownies, if you're lucky enough to be there on the right day are to die for, I'll take those over the Fritta Frutta any day! 

El Cafecito info posted August 1, 2010

Bun Boy

1890 West Main - Barstow, California

 Bun Boy Business Card from ca. 2008 or so Route 66 Adventure

We drove by the Bun Boy many times before we finally decided to stop and check it out.  For one thing, from the outside it looks too much like a chain restaurant and we make every effort when we're on the road to try to visit the indie cafes and restaurants.   OK, so now I can verify it is not a chain.  Thee food was good.,  but  still reminds me of the menu at Big Boy or Denny's - I think you get my drift.  However, there are a couple of things that really stand out - the decor is pure 1950s with big padded booths.  The waitresses which I'll refrain from calling by the modern word servers have the 1950s kitsch down, too.  Waitresses, not servers.  Oddly,   there was a bar in the back part of the restaurant, wasn't expecting to see that.  Big Boy and Denny's do not have adult beverages, score one for Bun Boy!  Lots of locals who were obviously regulars since they didn't even need to tell the waitress what they were having for lunch.  Bun Boy was packed to the edges of the bun with the lunch crowd and the two waitresses on duty handled it all in stride.  I guess they've had a lot of time to get this all down since they were established in 1926.   

Bun Boy info posted August 1, 2010

Lake Havasu Arizona to Grants New Mexico

 

Lake Havasu City

Sadly, it is time to leave Lake Havasu with it's beautiful palm trees and warm temps and continue the journey eastward. 

 

Williams Arizona

It was our intention to grab a bite to eat at Goldie's Route 66 Diner simply because we had never been there.  Alas, it was closed and with a for sale sign on the window to boot.  I asked Frank if he wanted to go into the Diner biz - he rolled he eyes at me which was not too surprising!

Back in the snow zone east of Williams

 

The remains of the Mountain Lion exhibit at Two Guns seem to stand up remarkably well to years of neglect.  I'll have to look back on some of our older pictures to see if that is really true or just my memory playing tricks on me!

 

School spirit in Holbrook

 

Root 66 RV Park

Funny sign

 

The green dino and wigwam reside at

the Painted Desert Trading Post

 

Fort Courage is still open, it's a combo trading post and post office.  The round Pancake House restaurant has been closed for a number of years.  Nope, Frank doesn't want to revive the Pancake House either!!

 

Indian City

If you missed Fort Courage for souvenirs, there's always Indian City right down the road.  No lack of souvenirs on Route 66

 

El Cafecito - Grants New Mexico

For some reason I missed getting any good Mexican food on the trip westbound, so the trip eastbound has been designated Enchilada Week.  We started in Lake Havasu at Chicos and tonight we dined at El Cafecito.  El Cafecito is a favorite of ours, excellent New Mexican style Mexican food.

For whatever reason, today seemed a long day on the road and yet we took very few photos.  I think we're just a little road weary.  It would be nice to stay put somewhere for two nights, but we have a deadline to be home on Friday.

Photos on this page were taken on February 16, 2010

 

Back on the Road Again!

After four days in southern California and

the Los Angeles Pen Show behind us we're ready to get back on the road again!

 

Foothill Blvd is Route 66

 
 

We're back on our Big Hill Route 66 bypass road again heading away from the congestion. I love these US Route 66 roads shields painted directly on the road bed.

 

The New Corral in Victorville

Wonder what happened to the Old Corral?

A Visit to the Victorville Route 66 Museum

The Victorville Route 66 Museum has been on our list of places to stop for several years now.  The fact that they are on Twitter got us to thinking about it more and more.  The timing was right so we stopped on in.  We were not disappointed.  This is a very well done Route 66 Museum.  Well worth the stop for a trip down memory lane.  Nice volunteers in the museum, too.

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

There's the Arrows again, a little smaller than the originals!

 

Adorable Tear Drop Camper!

 

There was a little sign next to this gravestone explaining that Brownie was a stray dog that always hung out at the Railroad Depot in Victorville.  Apparently Brownie was loved by all and would greet passengers and was a longtime Depot Dog.

 

Leaving Victorville.  The trains made me feel right at home.

 

We have grain elevators all across Iowa, but this is without a doubt the largest grain elevator I've ever seen.

 

This bridge on Route 66 north of Victorville is not all that unusual, but take a close look at the beautifully detailed railing.  It's stunning.  Hope they don't notice and replace it with concrete or something equally awful.

 

The bottle trees snuck up on us and we should have stopped for better pics.  Frank got a quick photo as we drove by.

Quirky bit of Route 66 road art.

 

If only gas were still 18 cents a gallon!  We did manage to stay under $3 gallon by not filling up in metro areas on this trip.

 

Obviously more rain than usual in this area.  You can see where the trucks have pushed the sand back off the road.

 

Taken out of the back window of the truck since we

were dazing off again along this section.

 

Beautiful Palms

 

The Do Drop Inn

A wannabe U Drop Inn?

Photos below were taken in Barstow on Route 66

which is the main drag through town.

Nice signage and murals

 

  

  

  

Barstow Railroad Depot and La Desiderata

We've been waiting to visit the restored Railroad Depot and attached Harvey House, La Desiderata for some time.  We actually did a quick drive by last year, but it was closed.  Turns out it was closed again today, only open on weekends, but we stopped for awhile to explore anyway.  The sun was out, a beautiful day and nice to get out and wander around a little bit.

The architecture of the Depot and the Harvey House is just amazing.  This is a huge complex of buildings.  Some have been restored, others are in the process of being renovated.  The fact that they were closed didn't keep Frank from putting camera to window and getting a few inside photos.  The chandeliers were amazing!  There are also a lot of old rail cars on display here.  

 

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

I can just imagine this old container car cruising down Route 66

 

Everyone always tells us that In-n-Out Burger has THE best burgers around and so we decided that it was time we checked them out.  The guy at the gas station told us how to find it in Barstow.  Turns out is was located at the outlet mall at the edge of town.  Bad idea to go there on a Monday holiday when hoards of people were out shopping, well at least they were trying to find a parking place to go shopping.  After several times around the parking lot, we found a spot big enough for the truck and went to stand in a long line for our In-n-Out burgers.  To their credit, the line moved quickly in spite of the place being packed to the gills.  The next challenge was finding a table and of course since it was nice out, I wanted an outside table like everyone else there.  Success at last, even if the table was in the shade.  However, I think Frank and I are too used to eating non-fast food.  The burgers were fine, but definitely of the fast food variety.  They didn't float my boat enough so that I'd say I want to go back right away.  I guess if there was an easy to get to In-n-Out and we were starving, we'd stop back again, but I wouldn't go out of the way to find one.  We can check that "to-do" off the list now!

 

Abandoned east of Barstow on Route 66

 

Long stretch of Route 66 in the Mojave

 

  

Roy's in Amboy, California is looking better and better each time we drive through.  The best part was going inside the cafe (not serving food yet) and browsing through the old photo albums they had laid out on the counter.  Wonderful old pictures of Amboy and Roy's in their heyday.

 

Last minute snapshot of the Shoe Tree east of Amboy.  It's turned into a tradition to toss your shoes up on the tree.  Sorry, I've read about it before, but have forgotten how this all got started.  I don't usually have shoes with me that I'm willing to sling over a tree!  I suppose I could carry out this tradition if I planned a little ahead and saved a pair of shoes for the Shoe Tree instead of throwing them out.  If I can remember until next year, I'll do that.  

 

The Roadrunner Restaurant

Long closed

 

Cute little cafe in need of some attention

We dropped off Route 66 to spend the night in Lake Havasu City.  Enjoy Frank's sunset shots from our hotel balcony!

 

  

  

Photos shown were taken on February 15, 2010