Eating Up Route 66: Foodways on America’s Mother Road

by T. Lindsay Baker

From its designation in 1926 to the rise of the interstates nearly sixty years later, Route 66 was, in John Steinbeck’s words, America’s Mother Road, carrying countless travelers the 2,400 miles between Chicago and Los Angeles. Whoever they were—adventurous motorists or Dustbowl migrants, troops on military transports or passengers on buses, vacationing families or a new breed of tourists—these travelers had to eat. The story of where they stopped and what they found, and of how these roadside offerings changed over time, reveals twentieth-century America on the move, transforming the nation’s cuisine, culture, and landscape along the way.

Author T. Lindsay Baker, a glutton for authenticity, drove the historic route—or at least the 85 percent that remains intact—in a four-cylinder 1930 Ford station wagon. Sparing us the dust and bumps, he takes us for a spin along Route 66, stopping to sample the fare at diners, supper clubs, and roadside stands and to describe how such venues came and went—even offering kitchen-tested recipes from historic eateries en route. Start-ups that became such American fast-food icons as McDonald’s, Dairy Queen, Steak ’n Shake, and Taco Bell feature alongside mom-and-pop diners with flocks of chickens out back and sit-down restaurants with heirloom menus. Food-and-drink establishments from speakeasies to drive-ins share the right-of-way with other attractions, accommodations, and challenges, from the Whoopee Auto Coaster in Lyons, Illinois, to the piles of “chat” (mining waste) in the Tri-State District of Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma, to the perils of driving old automobiles over the Jericho Gap in the Texas Panhandle or Sitgreaves Pass in western Arizona. Describing options for the wealthy and the not-so-well-heeled, from hotel dining rooms to ice cream stands, Baker also notes the particular travails African Americans faced at every turn, traveling Route 66 across the decades of segregation, legal and illegal.

So grab your hat and your wallet (you’ll probably need cash) and come along for an enlightening trip down America’s memory lane—a westward tour through the nation’s heartland and history, with all the trimmings, via Route 66.
 

Genres: History, Travel

432 pages, Hardcover

Published October 20, 2022

Reviews

[Leslie Goddard]

I give thumbs-up for the completeness of this compilation, which undoubtedly took copious amount of research. It struck me as more like an encyclopedia of nearly every restaurant on Route 66 throughout its history, which is a massive project in itself. Reading it in one fell swoop, however, is as much a slog as reading any encyclopedia might be. I wasn’t sure who the intended audience is. Other researchers, perhaps? It doesn’t work particularly well for current travelers, since many listed restaurants (most, perhaps) no longer exist and their buildings have been torn down. And it would be hard to figure out which restaurants still exist since there’s no easy index to help a reader locate them in the book. Nor does this book seem to work particularly well for general public readers interested in some kind of broad insight. Maybe an overview of how Route 66 foodways help us understand change over time in highway eating, or how the geographic diversity in foodways impacted the typical traveler experience on Route 66 or any other broader insights. Reading it, I kept feeling like I couldn’t see the forest for all the trees. The individual trees (descriptions of each restaurant) were copious but there was little attempt to understand the forest (what insights can we draw from all these restaurant descriptions?).

[Jennifer Stearns]

Author T. Lindsay Baker, a glutton for authenticity, drove the historic route—or at least the 85 percent that remains intact—in a four-cylinder 1930 Ford station wagon. Sparing us the dust and bumps, he takes us for a spin along Route 66, stopping to sample the fare at diners, supper clubs, an speakeasy's along this iconic highway of America.

[Angela]

Skimmed the section for my state. Disappointed to find that it was more about the history of restaurants of Route 66 than modern-day eateries. While some of the places are still in business, most aren't -- and there's no easy index or indicator to help differentiate. Not what I expected from the title.

[Emily Posthumus]

Very well researched - super interesting look into the history of food along route 66.