Published: February 02, 2008 11:59 pm            

Mother Road icons bring travelers enjoyment

Elaine Warner — I always thought of an icon as something old, making the term “new icon” oxymoronic. After sorting through dictionary definitions and settling on “symbol,” I decided I could use the term after all. And so, here are two new icons on the iconic Mother Road!

First, an old icon — Lucille’s, an old gas station on Route 66, is 1/2 a mile west of Hydro. The 1927 structure was purchased in 1941 by Carl and Lucille Hamons. Lucille Hamons resided here until she died in 2000. For more than half a century, the little white building with the overhanging second story, was a stopping place for travelers needing gas or snacks.

Oil man and Route 66 fan Rick Koch bought the deteriorating building and is in the process of restoring it. He’s used it as the theme for a great new restaurant in Weatherford, incorporating the style of the old station in the architecture and the nostalgia of the old road in the décor.

All that would be interesting but the compelling factor is the food. Jack and I stopped by late at night on our way home from Angel Fire. We were tired and hungry, but didn’t want to eat a lot at that hour.

Holding back was hard — the menu had a lot to offer and general manager Bill Lindsey has a big history with hamburgers. Still, Jack settled for a bowl of chili and I for a bowl of hamburger vegetable stew. Boy, did they hit the spot. Bill didn’t have to work too hard to get us to try one of Lucille’s most popular desserts — chocolate cobbler.

If you’re a chocoholic, prepare for ecstasy — a brownie base with chocolate syrup and a chocolate crumb top.

We ate in the main room of the restaurant — oh, so retro — a black and white floor, a lot of stainless steel and turquoise as the main accent color. I saw the ’50s the first time around, and this definitely captures the times. Customers may choose a booth, table, or seat at the counter.

Other areas of the restaurant include a lounge and a steakhouse. Lucille’s Roadhouse is more than a restaurant. It’s a destination.

Lucille’s is open 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Saturday and is located at the intersection of old Route 66 and Airport Road on the east edge of Weatherford.

If you haven’t heard of POPS in Arcadia, you haven’t been listening and if you haven’t been there, you very well may be square. This gas station/café/convenience store was bankrolled by Aubrey McClendon of Chesapeake Oil. Leave it to leading architect Rand Elliott to combine high tech with the old highway. Elliott has a history with the Mother Road; it goes through his hometown of Clinton. It must have been satisfying for him to design the Route 66 Museum there — and even more fun to design POPS.

The motto of POPS is “Food, Fuel, Fizz” and they pretty well have that covered, especially the “Fizz.” POPS boasts more than 400 types of soda including its own special Round Barn Root Beer — unavailable anywhere else in the world. Shelves of bottles of colored pop turn the plain glass windows into stained glass in this cathedral of cola.

POPS opened in August and by Oct. 11 had sold 66,000 bottles of pop. You’ll find all the usual types of soda plus a lot you’ve never heard of. I tried a blue brew called Brain Wash. The bottle advertised that it gets rid of all the garbage that’s been dumped in your brain.a I don’t know if it worked. It did turn my tongue and lips blue and it wasn’t my favorite flavor.

In the café, I tried the pumpkin curry soup. All POPS soups are homemade and this was excellent. The chicken-fried steak was a bit chewier than I liked but on a previous visit I had a hamburger that I would give an unrestrained thumbs-up.

Next time I go, I plan to order the NoName Ranch filet — seven ounces of Oklahoma-produced, hormone- and antibiotic-free filet mignon. For $15, the meal includes garlic mashed spuds and fresh veggies. It sounds wonderful.

Maybe I’ll get to see the giant pop bottle at night. Impressive in the daytime, the 66-foot-tall bottle is made of stainless steel with LEDs illuminating it at night. The world’s largest pop bottle, it weighs more than 4 tons and is a can’t-be-missed landmark.

POPS is open from 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. Breakfast is served between 6 and 10 a.m. Lunch and dinner are served between 11 a.m. and 9 p.m. Take a library book — at peak times guests frequently have to wait to be seated.

If you haven’t hit the road lately, Route 66 is better than ever. These two attractions are a good part of the reason.



ELAINE WARNER is an Edmond resident.

        

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