Although it’s no longer on Route 66, it was with sadness when it was reported last spring that the Beef Burger Barrel in Amarillo, Texas, was going to close after more than 50 years.
Apparently reports of the uniquely shaped restaurant’s demise were premature. According to the Austin American-Statesman, David White reopened the restaurant after it was closed for about five months.
He figures he’s sunk $10,000 into remodeling the old barrel, which started out as an A&W Root Beer stand in the ’30s on Route 66.
The barrel needed work.
“I jackhammered up the floor,” said White, who, interestingly, is shaped like a barrel himself. “Put in new plumbing and made it functional. Put in a new grill, new cold table.”[…]
“I added the cheese on the burger,” White said. “Yeah, what’s a burger without cheese? It didn’t have cheese. And the old cow up on the sign, we repainted the cow.” The large plaster cow — it may actually be a steer — sits on a pole with the message that says, simply, “Beef Burger.”
Beef Burger Barrel was at Amarillo Boulevard (Route 66) and Hayes Street in 1947. The restaurant, which moved several times, was started in 1937. It wound up at 3102 Plains Blvd. in 1952 and stayed there ever since.