Granny’s Shaffer’s Restaurant, a mainstay along the Route 66 corridor in the Joplin, Missouri, region for 53 years, served its last meal this weekend.
KOAM-TV and several other local media outlets reported that the last remaining restaurant of the small regional chain at 2728 N. Range Line Road (aka Route 66) shuttered for good on July 12.
A public auction for all the equipment will be held on July 20.
The restaurant announced its closing date in late June.
“After much thought and consideration, we have made the difficult decision to close this chapter,” it stated.
David and Karen Shaffer and their three children started in the restaurant business in a former Dog ‘N Suds in nearby Webb City, Missouri. They soon rechristened it as Shaffer’s Big Q Burgers.
A box of family recipes given to Karen Shaffer by her aunt led to the idea that she could expand the business with home-cooked meals. It became the first Granny Shaffer’s when they added to the front of the building and began offering breakfast and pies. From then on, Karen Shaffer was known as “Granny.”
In the 1980s, the restaurant moved to its current Joplin location and was renamed Granny Shaffer’s Family Restaurant.
Karen died in 2005, but the family continued to use her recipes and others from the family.
Granny’s had another location on West Seventh Street (aka Route 66), but it closed in 2022. The owners cited rising costs and shrinking profits during the COVID-19 pandemic.
(Image of the Granny Shaffer’s Family Restaurant logo)