I enjoy Jane Dippel’s periodic reports on the Route 66 yahoogroup. She drives long stretches of the road at least twice a year, and keeps her eyes open.
Today, she reported that La Cita restaurant at 812 Tucumcari Blvd. (Route 66) in Tucumcari, N.M., had reopened after a lengthy hiatus. This was a significant development; La Cita (built in 1961) was one of my favorites on Route 66. Its chicken enchiladas were wonderful, and the big sombrero over its entrance made it a roadside kitsch icon.
The Quay County Sun reported in October 2004 that the restaurant would close the next month after business operators Karen Manning and Sharon McCauley’s unspecified “business problems” with the building’s owner. Manning and McCauley started a new restaurant at the briefly closed Dean’s restaurant down the street.
I called the Tucumcari / Quay County Chamber of Commerce, and the woman there who answered the phone confirmed that La Cita had reopened “about two months ago” under the same operators who run the Pow Wow Inn in town. She said the building had been remodeled inside and repainted. But the famed sombrero remains, as does the neon sign, which had been refurbished by the New Mexico’s Route 66 neon sign program a few years ago.
About the only change was the removal of a willow tree near La Cita’s entrance; she said it was interfering with the building’s foundation.
La Cita still serves Mexican-style meals, and it is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Its phone number is 505-461-7866.