The Doc’s Just Off Route 66 restaurant and bar in downtown Girard, Illinois, likely will be under new ownership in about a month.
Steve and Casey Claypool owned the former drugstore for five years and shifted it more toward a restaurant-related business. Casey is also executive director of the Illinois Route 66 Scenic Byway.
The historic eatery, located one block east of original Route 66, will be taken over by Amy and Jeremy Hampton and their family, probably in late November, according to the establishment’s Facebook post.
For many of you who have called Girard home your whole lives, Amy is already a familiar face. She brings years of industry experience, deep community relationships, and a love for the people who make this town special. We truly could not have handpicked a better family to carry Docs into its next chapter.
Steve and I will be around to help with the transition, because Docs’ continued success means the world to us. We anticipate finalizing the sale toward the end of November, with the Hampton family taking over after Thanksgiving.
In the meantime, please stop in, share a memory, and let us thank you in person. When Amy and Jeremy begin their journey, we hope you’ll welcome them with the same love and support you have shown our family.
The Claypools put Doc’s up for sale in the spring while continuing to operate it.
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 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.
Their grandfather started Deck’s Drug Store in 1884. The soda fountain there dates to 1929.
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.
(Image of Doc’s Just Off 66 in Girard, Illinois, via The Real Estate Group)