The restaurant inside the historic U-Drop Inn in Shamrock, Texas, officially opened for business Wednesday after about a one-week trial run.
It’s the first time a restaurant has operated in the Route 66 landmark in more than 25 years.
The U-Drop Inn Cafe will be open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday through Friday and from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday. It will serve lunches from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day it’s open, with ice cream offered during those times.
Longtime Shamrock resident Baldo de Leon is leasing the restaurant space for one year from the city. He and his parents run the long-operating El Sombrero restaurant, a few blocks south of Route 66 on U.S. 83 in Shamrock.
Here are images from the U-Drop Inn Cafe’s Facebook account and folks who dined there during its trial run:
The diner portion of the building was inoperable even after the building was taken over by the city and renovated about 20 years ago, though it contained displays that included the booth where Elvis Presley dined during one of his cross-country trips from Memphis to Hollywood or Las Vegas.
J.M. Tindall and R.C. Lewis built the Art Deco gas station and restaurant in 1936 at the cost of $23,000 after John Nunn drew his idea for the station on the ground with an old nail. Plans were later given to architect Joseph Berry.
(Image of the U-Drop Inn in Shamrock, Texas, by Jeff Kays via Flickr)