Amarillo’s Blue Front Cafe goes up for sale

Blue Front Cafe, Amarillo, by Jack Malone (FB)

The Blue Front Cafe, a breakfast-and-lunch fixture along Amarillo’s Sixth Avenue (aka Route 66) for at least 60 years, is being put on the market for $225,000.

The restaurant at 801 Southwest Sixth Ave. is listed by the Gaut-Whittenberg-Emerson real-estate firm of Amarillo. According to the listing, the restaurant’s roof and gas line were replaced two years ago, and all the equipment would be part of the sale.

Owner Bobbie McReynolds, 72, told the Amarillo Globe-News she still loves her customers, but said it’s time to retire. The newspaper also dug up some history of the restaurant:

The cafe origins stem from a drugstore counter inside a store at Southwest Sixth and Adams Street, according to historical information former owner Betty Malson provided to the Panhandle Regional Planning Commission in the late 1980s.

That sandwich counter eventually evolved into the Blue Front Cafe. which moved to its current location in 1984, Malson wrote.

The restaurant closed after lunch at the old location on a Saturday and opened in its new location on a Monday, McReynolds recalled. “They did not miss a lick.”

According to at least one Internet site I found, the Blue Front dates back to 1946. The restaurant plays off its roots with plenty of Route 66 decor and nostalgic atmosphere.

(Image of the Blue Front Cafe by Jack Malone via Facebook)

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