Doc’s Just Off 66, formerly Doc’s Soda Fountain in downtown Girard, Illinois, opened to the public a few days ago after an ownership change, extensive remodeling and forming new menus.
The owners held a “super” soft opening on Saturday, then posted their menus for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and soda-fountain treats on Facebook shortly after that.
Doc’s Just Off 66 is open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
A grand opening celebration is planned at a to-be-determined date in late July.
Here are some images from the soft opening and the interior of the restaurant and former pharmacy:
More can be found on the Doc’s Just Off 66 page on Facebook.
Steve and Casey Claypool of nearby Chatham, Illinois, purchased the nearly 140-year-old Doc’s Soda Fountain site in late 2021. Casey also is executive director of the state’s Route 66 scenic byway program.
Doc’s Just Off 66 at 133 S. Second St. sits a stone’s throw from Illinois Route 4, the original path of U.S. 66 through that part of the state before the highway was realigned to the east during the early 1930s.
The Deck brothers ran Deck’s Drug Store at that location for many years. Bill Deck died at age 91 in 2018, and Bob Deck died at age 82 in 2013.
The Deck brothers’ grandfather started Deck’s Drug Store in 1884. The soda fountain itself dates to 1929. The soda fountain and old-time pharmacy displays remained with the recent change in ownership.
Bob and Renae Ernst bought the drugstore building in 2007 and renamed it Doc’s Soda Fountain, and the Decks loaned them their pharmacy collection.
Doc’s closed “temporarily” last June, then was put on the market shortly after that.
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