The historic Casper’s Diner, located for decades in a Quonset hut in downtown Springfield, Missouri, is moving to another location near a prominent alignment of Route 66.
The Springfield News-Leader reported the restaurant will move from 601 W. Walnut St. and reopen in the old Anton’s Coffee Shop building on 937 S. Glenstone Ave. in late summer or early fall.
Part of Glenstone is Route 66, though Casper’s new site will be south of that.
Owner Shawn Kraft said he felt like he outgrew the location downtown and he had been looking for a place with a drive-thru for a while.
Kraft told the News-Leader that he has mixed emotions leaving the iconic location, but with all the maintenance problems in the hut over the years it was time to move on. […]
The new Casper’s location will feature a drive-thru, a bigger parking lot and the inside will also seat more people compared to the downtown location.
Casper’s initially made the announcement of its imminent move last week:
What future lies for the Quonset hut remains uncertain. Such architecture, which dates to World War I, has its own historic cachet.
Casper’s first opened in 1909, making it one of the city’s oldest restaurants, though it had been in the Quonset hut for only 37 of those years. One of its earlier locations was 1901 S. Glenstone Ave., about a mile south of Anton’s.
Casper’s boasts a popular, secret-recipe chili that even ardent chiliheads haven’t sussed out.
Casper’s had claimed to be the “oldest diner on Route 66,” but it sat two blocks off the nearest Route 66 alignment.
And Ike’s Chili, which has operated on at least two alignments of Route 66 in Tulsa during its history, started in 1908 — a year earlier than Casper’s.
Then you have the Sycamore Inn in Rancho Cucamonga, California, which has operated on the same spot of Foothill Boulevard (aka Route 66) since 1848.
(Image of Casper’s diner in Springfield, Missouri, via Facebook)