Jobe’s Drive-In, a Route 66 restaurant in El Reno, Oklahoma, for over 60 years, recently reopened for the first time in nearly a decade.
The restaurant, which dates to 1958, has been renamed Jobe’s Country Boy Drive-In.
Here’s an image from its grand reopening a few weeks ago:
Local contractor Eric Hughes, a fan of the fabled onionburger restaurants in El Reno, leased the property at 1220 Sunset Drive (aka Router 66) and decided to revive the restaurant after consulting with its longtime previous owner, Robert Sanders, who had retired in 2015 after 46 years there.
KOCO-TV in nearby Oklahoma City reported that longtime residents say Hughes faithfully re-created the restaurant’s famed charburger that was made with a hickory-smoked sauce.
“I had to go through Robert’s receipts from way back when to look up stuff that he purchased back then to try to make everything correct,” Hughes said.
Hughes added that what it means to the community pushed him to reopen the Route 66 classic.
“Generations upon generations upon generations of people have come here, and it’s not just for the folks of El Reno, but it’s for Oklahoma,” Hughes said.
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