The new owner of Jobe’s Drive-In in El Reno, Oklahoma, will convert the Route 66 restaurant into a “cowboys and Indians” antique store after buying it at auction last weekend, according to the El Reno Tribune.
Cliff Johnson, a musician, submitted the winning bid of $63,000 for the building. According to the newspaper:
Johnson said over the past 50 years he has been able to collect a good inventory of “cowboy and Indian” items that he thinks will be attractive to tourists who travel through El Reno.
“With Jobe’s being on Route 66, I think this could be a good attraction,” Johnson said. He said the only changes inside the building will be a coat of paint. It will be used to practice with the half dozen musicians he plays with regularly. No food will be served.
Reding said he “wouldn’t be surprised” if Johnson and his band “play music out in the parking lot a couple of times a year.”
Doug Von Tungeln bought the recipes for the restaurant’s charburger sauce, chicken-fried steak, and pizza. He was more tight-lipped about his intentions for the recipes, but acknowledged he was considering “several thoughts and things we might do.”
Longtime Jobe’s owner Robert Sanders decided to auction his business after his wife died and he suffered serious injures in a car wreck in December. Sanders owned Jobe’s since 1969, and it originally opened in 1958.
(Image of Jobe’s Drive-In sign circa 2005 by tikitonite via Flickr)