The Hotrod Hangout Speed Shop & Diner, which will open soon in Galena, Kansas, will include an original Valentine diner operating as soon as this spring.
The speed shop inside will include elements of an old-time Fina gas station and a drive-in theatre, complete with a ticket booth, which the owner hopes will become a travel destination.
The hotrod-parts-and-restaurant business is the brainchild of Brian Haden, who originally hails from Hope, Kansas, but has fostered a love for Route 66 for years. He said he’s traveled the Mother Road several times as far west as Albuquerque.
Haden said in a recent telephone interview the Valentine diner stood in Herington, Kansas (about eight miles from Hope) as a Frigid Queen from 1950 to the mid-1990s, when the restaurant closed.
He said the diner was destined to be crushed for scrap when he bought it in 2014 and moved it to his Hope home for about a decade until he figured out what to do with it.
Haden said a divorce clarified things for him, including following his dream to run a business on Route 66.
“I’m just a car guy, and I love to travel,” he said. “What better to do it than on 66?
“One day, I decided to put some roots down and get going on this diner.”
He obtained the storefront in downtown Galena in April 2023, then moved the diner next to the shop in the 200 block of South Main Street (aka Route 66) a few months ago.
Aaron Perry’s Gearhead Curios and Cars on the Route both are down the street from him.
Haden said he hopes to have the speed shop open by the end of this year. As for the Valentine diner (a Little Chef model), he wants to open it by the spring of 2025. At the latest, he wants it operating by Route 66’s centennial in 2026.
He said it would serve Zipburgers — a specialty item where Haden obtained the recipe from the Frigid Queen’s former owner.
The diner also would serve sloppy joes and Bierock sandwiches.
He said the diner will seat about six people, and the speed shop next door will serve as overflow seating. ‘
Valentine diners were manufactured in Wichita, Kansas, from the 1930s to the 1970s. Though a few surviving Valentines are sprinkled along Route 66, Haden said he wasn’t aware of any operating as restaurants.
“I don’t know of any that are serving food,” he said.
(Image of the Valentine diner next to the Hotrod Hangout business coming in Galena, Kansas, courtesy of Brian Haden)
The restored Valentine diner at Pioneer Village, Minden NE. reopened 3 months ago.