The neon sign at Lou Mitchell’s February 17, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in Restaurants, Signs.add a comment
Here’s a close-up of a beauty — the neon sign at the historic Lou Mitchell’s Restaurant, near the eastern end of Route 66 in Chicago:
This is one of many neon-sign videos by Mike at MindsIMedia.com. The neon sign clips are grouped here.
Missouri eatery named best British restaurant February 15, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in Attractions, Restaurants.add a comment
Here’s something I bet you never thought you’d see — a restaurant in Springfield, Mo., has been named the best British eatery outside United Kingdom.
The Telegraph, a major newspaper in England, bestowed that honor to Farmers Gastropub. Here’s what The Telegraph said about the restaurant, just south of downtown Springfield:
Described by its nominator as “a little piece of Britain in the heart of America”, this welcoming gastropub was highly commended in our last competition and this year managed to scoop the prize for top restaurant. We imagine its 26 draught beers will be flowing freely to celebrate.
According to the News-Leader newspaper in Springfield, owner Bill Griffiths is a former resident of the United Kingdom. He moved to Springfield so his wife could be closer to her family.
The News-Leader also gave a few details about the Telegraph’s honor:
The paper has an expatriate edition aimed at U.K citizens living elsewhere in the world. Griffiths registered the Farmers Gastropub with The Telegraph after he opened the doors, but believes he knows who nominated it for the annual honor.
“I think David Crump, an Englishman who used to own the Global Fayre business here, was the first to vote for us,” Griffiths said. “After we opened in 2009, this fellow walked in with a British accent and said ‘Am I dreaming?’”
The News-Leader says the restaurant has gained customers from the Mother Road. Farmers Gastropub sits just a few blocks south of the East St. Louis Street alignment of Route 66:
Route 66 also has helped deliver a steady stream of expatriates to his restaurant’s doorstep.
“Route 66 is popular with Brits who come here to drive the Mother Road,” Griffiths said, referring to the historic highway that swings through the heart of Springfield.
Expect more Britons to patronize the restaurant during the upcoming tourist season. Those in the Route 66 tourism industry expect a surge of UK travelers after the highly rated “Billy Connolly’s Route 66″ aired on British television last fall.
According to the restaurant’s website:
We’re a friendly, unpretentious neighborhood pub that serves good food. Really good food in fact.
The on e thing that drives the creation of FARMERS GASTROPUB is the absolute and passionate resolve that good food is not rocket science, and that it does not have to cost the earth.
FARMERS GASTROPUB is one of Springfield, Missouri’s only restaurants and pubs dedicated to fresh, local, sustainable, and natural/organic dining and drinking. We feature ingredients from local farmers. We buy supplies, to the extent possible, that are sustainable and recyclable.
Persian food at an Okie barbecue restaurant February 10, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in Food, Restaurants.add a comment
This Land Press a few months ago produced this video about the Golden Saddle restaurant, which is on Tulsa’s Admiral Place alignment of Route 66.
Not only does the Golden Saddle serve such typical Oklahoma delights as steak and barbecue, but also Persian dishes. That’s because the restaurant is owned by an Iranian immigrant:
Middle Eastern cuisine isn’t that unusual in northeastern Oklahoma. A whole bunch of Lebanese-Americans arrived during the initial Land Rush in 1889, and more streamed into the Sooner State when oil was discovered during the teens and ’20s.
A good many of those Lebanese-Americans opened steakhouses in Tulsa and the surrounding region, where it’s not unusual to get kibbe, cabbage rolls, and tabbouleh as appetizers. In fact, the Lebanese influence is so pervasive, it’s common to see tabbouleh at small-town Okie groceries and potlucks.
Incidentally, Tally’s Good Food Cafe, on the more-prominent Route 66 alignment of 11th Street in Tulsa, is owned by a Lebanese immigrant.
Historic L.A. restaurant displays its original facade February 9, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in History, Preservation, Restaurants.1 comment so far
Clifton’s Cafeteria, a historic restaurant in downtown Los Angeles near the original western terminus of Route 66, on Wednesday removed the aluminum that hid the building’s original 1904 facade for nearly 50 years, reported the Los Angeles Times.
The new view was a little unsightly. But the facade will be restored as part of an extensive project by new owner Andrew Meieran.
Here’s a video by Esotouric, the company that leads historic (and sometimes quirky) bus tours of Los Angeles, at the facade unveiling:
The Times reported:
But there were a few murmurs from a crowd of roughly 200 spectators as work crews lifted a huge tarp and revealed that many of the building’s original windows were filled in with ugly concrete blocks.
Not to worry, said Meieran, who acquired the downtown cafeteria in 2010 from the Clinton family for $3.6 million.
As soon as seismic upgrades are completed, the concrete blocks — installed for earthquake safety in 1988 — will be removed. Glass panes will replace the blocks and natural light will again flood into the cafeteria’s famous redwood forest-themed dining room, he said.
The Times also made this super-cool slider graphic that shows you before-and-after photos of Clinton’s facade.
This video created about a year ago, delves into Clifton’s atmosphere and history quite well:
Clifton’s website also offered details of the renovations:
A new Cafeteria Line will open in 2012 that takes advantage of modern equipment –while serving a healthy dose of old fashioned quality and comfort fare– just like you remembered it (only made now with organic and sustainably farmed ingredients). It will be the Clifton’s you remember combined with the Clifton’s you imagined and hoped existed. [...]
What will emerge from this restoration is Clifton’s “The Brookdale;” a food, entertainment and nightlife destination designed in the spirit of Clifford Clinton’s original vision. All existing historic fabric will be thoughtfully and carefully retained– including the Chapel, the Waterfall and Brook (what would The Brookdale be without its brook?!), the Redwood trees and Terraces– the elements that have made Clifton’s an institution for so many decades. Missing fanciful elements like the original Water Wheel, Old Tree Wishing Well, Limeade Springs and the Sherbet Mine will be re-created in a fashion; bringing to life the history Clifton’s represents.
In addition, guests will encounter an entirely new world of wonder within the same walls. A historic soda fountain, specialty grocery, five distinct lounges and bars, a butcher shop and world class bakery– along with several surprises– will complement the existing Cafeteria in serving our diverse community.
According to Scott Piotrowski’s book “Finding the End of the Mother Road: Route 66 in Los Angeles County,” the original Route 66 ended at Seventh Street and Broadway in downtown L.A. That put it literally a stone’s throw from Clifton’s. It was the western end of Route 66 until 1935, when it was moved west to Santa Monica.
Clifton’s opened in 1931, so U.S. Highway 66 went right by its front door for a few years.
(Hat tip: Kevin Hansel)
La Posada nearly finished with all the rooms February 6, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in Motels, Restaurants.add a comment
John Sharpe, chef at the acclaimed Turquoise Room restaurant at the historic and massively successful La Posada hotel in Winslow, Ariz., revealed a few newsworthy items in his regular email newsletter Sunday.
First, construction on all the hotel’s rooms is about to come to an end. Sharpe said:
We are presently at 49 and will top 53 by April. More guests staying here translates to more people to feed so we will have to be ready by April.
Second, La Posada is about to expand further:
We have made some modifications to the kitchen that will help us do just that (expansion). Allan is relocating our management offices to the area that used to be the original front desk of the hotel.
This is to facilitate the next phase of the hotel’s expansion eastwards into the Depot and the grounds surrounding this area. We are hoping to have increased seating by the spring of 2013 in the form of a patio. It will be entered from the east end of the dining room where you now see us going into the management office. This building, known as the “Spam Room,” is to be demolished. It will make way for the partially enclosed patio. As a footnote – the “Spam Room” is where the spam sandwiches were prepared during World War Two. Many troop trains stopped in Winslow as they carried the troops to war and back home again.
There will be the planting of a “Chefs’ Garden” as well as a vineyard. All of this will enhance the eastern entrance to what will be the transformation of the Depot into art gallery space also being referred to as the Museum project.
The back of the kitchen will be thankfully hidden behind walls and so that the eastern part of the property can be as desirable a place to walk as some of the other areas. Construction is due to start on this later in 2012. I will keep you posted through my newsletters and blog.
La Posada sits next to Route 66 on one side, and the Burlington Northern-Santa Fe railroad tracks on the other.
La Posada’s owner, Alan Affeldt, also seeks to renovate and reopen the long-closed El Garces in Needles, Calif. Like La Posada, El Garces was built as a Harvey House.
Arizona Route 66 restaurant destroyed by fire; owner killed February 1, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in Restaurants.4 comments
A natural gas explosion is believed to have started an explosion and fire that destroyed Linda’s Cafe & Deli in Golden Shores, Ariz., and killed its owner last Thursday, reported the Mojave Daily News.
The body of the restaurant’s owner, Ronald Lee Hansen, 58, of nearby Topock, Ariz., was discovered by firefighters as they tried to control the blaze.
The restaurant was at the 12900 block of South Oatman Road, aka Route 66.
An explosion reportedly occurred at 7:44 a.m. Thursday. Officials think the blast was caused by a gas leak, possibly from a water heater. Firefighters think Hansen was alone at the time of the fire.
Linda’s Cafe was decorated in a Route 66 diner style, and was listed in the Route 66 Dining and Lodging Guide, published by the National Historic Route 66 Federation.
The Sooner State’s best BBQ January 28, 2012
Posted by Ron Warnick in Food, Restaurants.2 comments
I’m sticking my neck out, but I’m going to say it anyway — Burn Co. BBQ in Tulsa serves the best barbecue I’ve had in Oklahoma.
I’ve visited great places in the Sooner State, including Van’s Pig Stand in Shawnee and The Boundary on 66 near Luther. But I’ve eaten three times at Burn Co. BBQ — which is right on Tulsa’s 11th Street alignment of Route 66 — in the past few weeks, and have sampled something different each time. I’m ready to declare Burn Co. my personal champ of Okie barbecue.
Amazingly, Burn Co. has been open only about a year, and it’s already got quite a following.
This well-produced video by This Land Press a few weeks ago shows the restaurant (and its critical Hasty Bake connection) very well:
The catch is this: Burn Co. BBQ is open only for lunch, and only from Tuesday through Saturday. And if you don’t get there early, it tends to run out of its most popular entrees, especially ribs.
But if you happen to be cruising through Tulsa about lunchtime, I highly recommend that you stop there.