About

Our goal is to describe one restaurant in each US 89 community. 

Preference will be given to restaurants located on US 89. That's really the main criteria.

If none are located on Old US 89, we will feature the community's oldest restaurant....but we've only done it once so far.  Unless the restaurant is a great example of roadside diner food, we won't feature it.

What are the criteria for a diner to be featured?

Well, it's pretty simple.  "Back in the day" before McDonald's and all the other national fast-food franchises came onto the scene, roadside diners were strictly a "one and only" rendition by "mom and pop".  Each diner has its own individual flair and perhaps even a signature menu item but the bottom line is that they all served Classic American Comfort Food.  

Regardless of the highway's name and number, all such diners shared most everything in common.  You could make a tongue-in-cheek case that one diner's menu could be swapped with any other diner's menu and no one would notice the different.

That's because practically all diners used the same primary tools: a grill, a deep fat fryer, an oven, a soda fountain, an ice cream freezer and a milk shake mixer.

The dill pickle and lettuce on your hamburger were what passed for a salad in those days.  Health foods?  Fuggetaboutit!

Since we've started this US 89 Food project, we've come to the conclusion you could drive US 89 from Mexico to Canada and gain 30-50 pounds if you stopped and ate in every single one of the remaining iconic roadside diners.