The remains of the storied but long-closed Club Cafe restaurant in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, were torn down Friday, according to reporting by the Guadalupe County Communicator.
The newspaper’s publisher, M.E. Sprengelmeyer, posted the above photograph on Facebook about midday Friday.
We’d cruised by the site a few days before. All the debris was cleared out of the restaurant, and nothing but the four walls remained.
The two orphaned Club Cafe neon signs will remain standing indefinitely.
Although the Club Cafe’s obituary is listed as 2015, it turns out it closed for good in 1992. Known since 1935 for its sourdough biscuits, New Mexican cuisine and its “smiling Fat Man” logo on signs and billboards, Club Cafe closed after a recession and the opening of a nearby McDonald’s.
The property’s current owner, Joseph Campos, announced in June 2014 he would tear the restaurant down after determining it would have required up to $750,000 to bring the building up to code. The dismantling of the structure didn’t begin in earnest until this spring.
The Club Cafe’s previous operator, Ron Chavez, died a year ago.
(Vintage postcard image of Club Cafe via 66Postcards.com; image of Club Cafe being torn down courtesy of ME Sprengelmeyer)