Bell Restaurant closes in Lebanon

I’m late on this, but the historic Bell Restaurant on Route 66 in Lebanon, Mo., apparently closed a few months ago.

I was alerted to this today by Kelly Ludwig, creator of the Road Trip 66 app. After checking the Lebanon Daily Record’s archives, I found a letter to the editor from Jim Bell in mid-January that said the Bell had closed recently.

According to the letter, Clinton and Jim Bell came to Lebanon in 1946, and an online reference said the restaurant was built by Clinton Bell in 1964. The letter from Jim Bell also indicated that Clinton Bell had died.

I could find no article referring directly to the restaurant’s closure.

Other than its long association with the Mother Road, probably the Bell Restaurant’s biggest claim to fame was a much-reported visit by future President Barack Obama during his 2008 campaign, in July. Claire Messud of Newsweek reported:

The Bell is a diner with cracked orange vinyl seats, speckled Formica floors and fat slices of pie in tight Saran Wrap, visited by frustrated flies, dotted along the counter. Out back, there is a bell-shaped pool, empty now, visible through smeary plate-glass windows. The air inside hangs heavy with tobacco, and many of the patrons are leathered by a lifetime of smoking. They are largely older, white, country people, surprised at their late lunches or early suppers by the grand retinue and the man at its center. A woman of 80 or thereabouts, rail thin, with a shock of flossy hair, dressed as if for church in a puffy white blouse and a long skirt, introduces herself and embraces Obama enthusiastically near the door, while another customer pushes his baseball cap back on his forehead and mutters, “Don’t that beat all.”

Also, Ludwig reported that Britt’s Route 66 Grill, also in Lebanon, has closed a short time after being in the former Wrink’s Market building.

The building’s owner, Terry Wrinkle, said in a recent tweet that he is considering putting the building up for sale. Wrinkle is the son of longtime Wrink’s Market owner Glenn Wrinkle. Terry revived the business for about 2 1/2 years until it closed in summer 2009 due to a variety of economic factors.