Lunch at Lucille’s Roadhouse

While briefly at a hotel in Weatherford, Okla., on Wednesday, I chatted with a young man behind the front desk. He’d mentioned he worked evenings at the new Route 66-themed restaurant in town, Lucille’s Roadhouse.

I asked him what’s the best thing on the Lucille’s menu.

He grinned. “The fried onion burgers. Definitely,” he said.

I went to Lucille’s Roadhouse about 1 p.m. Although I was told this would be the time the lunch crowd would thin out, it was packed. It took another half-hour before the cafe emptied to a reasonable level. I was later told that Lucille’s had served 6,000 customers since it opened Aug. 2. So obviously Lucille’s was a howling success.

And the kid was right about the fried onion burgers. But more on that later.

Lucille’s Roadhouse is at a T-intersection of old Route 66 and Airport Road on the east edge of Weatherford. It is the brainchild of oil man Rick Koch, a Route 66 enthusiast.

The outside appearance of Lucille’s Roadhouse is inspired by the original Lucille’s, a now-closed historic gas station a few miles down Route 66 near Hydro (seen below). Lucille’s Roadhouse’s key design element is a canopy that has a 1940 Ford pickup and vintage gas pumps under it. Don’t expect to use this canopy during a rainstorm; it’s for looks only.

Koch also bought the original Lucille’s and shored up the formerly deteriorating property. The history of the original Lucille’s is featured prominently on the restaurant’s menu.

Lucille’s Roadhouse has three areas: The Grill, The Steakhouse and a lounge. The Steakhouse and lounge aren’t yet open, but will be sometime in September.

The Grill sports a 1950s diner look, with polished chrome, glass brick and colored lighting. In addition to tables and booths, it has a sit-down counter. A chalkboard listed three types of cobbler and four flavors of pie.

A note near the front door gave an advance apology for any service errors, as waitstaff was still being trained. But to my eye, they seemed to be doing pretty well.

The Grill serves diner food, but it’s a wide range of diner food. Among the entrees are meatloaf, chicken and dumplings, catfish, country-fried steak, pork chops and a barbecue plate. Side orders included mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, french fries, okra, cole slaw, dinner salad and potato salad.

The menu also tells customers they can “build a hamburger.” Available toppings are listed, including bacon, pepperjack cheese and guacamole. But special orders don’t upset them; it says if you request something and the kitchen has it, no problem.

One smart thing about The Grill is its special smoking section. It looks like just a smaller room, but it uses a special ventilation system that shields tobacco smoke from nonsmokers. I didn’t even know it was a smoking room until I walked into it, felt a rush of forced air around the doorway, and then smelled the smoke. It’s an ingenious system that pleases smokers and nonsmokers without offending each other.

That was the idea of Bill Lindsey, who is general manager of Lucille’s Roadhouse and frequently works behind the grill. He was owner of The Grill for 24 years on Davis Avenue in Weatherford. Koch began wooing him to his Lucille’s Roadhouse idea about three years ago. Around Memorial Day, Lindsey closed The Grill and started preparing for his new “The Grill” in Lucille’s Roadhouse.

And Lindsey’s claim to fame at his old restaurant was — you guessed it — fried onion burgers.

Lindsey appeared bleary-eyed when I met him. He said he’d been getting just three or four hours of sleep a night since Lucille’s opened just because he was trying to get the restaurant running smoothly. The plan is to eventually operate from 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. seven days a week. But Lindsey says Lucille’s will close on Sundays for a few weeks so he and his employees can get some rest.

Lindsey said the steakhouse part of the restaurant will likely open in late September, on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays by reservation only. He said it will serve steak, seafood and pasta in the $18 to $22 range. The lounge (seen below), he said, probably will also debut in September, but will be open six to seven days a week.

After Lindsey left, I bit into my fried onion burger. It was just like the ones you find in Route 66 diners in nearby El Reno, the Onion Burger Capital of the World. Terrific.

Route 66 aficionados want to preserve and patronize old businesses along the road. But it’s worthwhile to patronize new Route 66 businesses who respect the Mother Road’s traditions and give them a fresh twist. Lucille’s Roadhouse is one of those.

(Lucille’s Roadhouse is at 1301 Airport Road, Weatherford, Okla., north of Exit 84 of Interstate 40. The phone number is 580-772-8808. It will set up a Web site at a later date.)