Rock soon will go on the block

Owner Dawn Welch says she is putting up for sale the Rock Cafe, a Route 66 landmark in Stroud, Okla.

Welch, 43, who has owned the restaurant since 1993, will sign papers Friday with commercial real-estate firm Herndon & Kelley that will officially put the business on the market.

The asking price of $300,000 will include the restaurant and the next-door Mamie’s gift shop, with a long-term lease for the land and buildings.

Welch said in a telephone interview Wednesday she soon will launch a blog that elaborates on why she’s selling the businesses.

“It boils down that I’ve raised my kids, and I’m ready to get back on the road and have some adventures,” she said. “I think I always knew I’d eventually move on and get back out in the world.”

Welch’s daughter Alexis, 18, is a senior in high school, and son Paul, 11, next fall will attend a middle school for academically gifted children in Oklahoma City.

Welch said she’d been thinking for years about selling the Rock Cafe, but movement in that direction became serious in the past three months. She’s listing the property with Herndon & Kelley because its proprietors have been Rock Cafe customers since her early years, and offered to help her if she ever wanted to sell the business.

“I wanted Realtors who love the business,” Welch said.

Even after it goes on the block, Welch said, the Rock Cafe will continue serving breakfast and lunch as usual, seven days a week.

“There will be no changes or lack of enthusiasm,” she said. “This will allow us to enjoy the last moments we have.”

Welch says she’ll give a detailed notebook about the Rock Cafe to serious prospects. In fact, she said, a former Rock Cafe employee is in contention to buy the restaurant.

Welch initially became well-known to roadies because of her varied food offerings, which ran from Cajun to German to Oklahoma favorites such as chicken-Fried steak. She gained fame when Pixar Animation Studios based her personality on the Sally Carrera character in the 2006 hit film “Cars.”

Welch and her Rock Cafe have appeared in several television programs, including “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives,” and she published a cookbook, “Dollars to Donuts.”

The Rock Cafe was gutted by a fire in May 2008. But a determined Welch, with the help of a historic-minded contractor, rebuilt the restaurant and reopened it within a year.

Welch says she doesn’t have firm plans once the Rock Cafe sells, but is considering other ventures in the region.

UPDATE 11/12/2012: As promised, Dawn has posted on a new blog about putting the Rock Cafe up for sale. An excerpt:

The tinge of new horizons on the “Dream Big” side of my psyche and the apprehensive “Frozen State of Being” psyche battle for power. Global is my nature and with my children starting their own travels, its time to hit the road.