Have lunch at the Oklahoma restaurant that endured disastrous weather and provided inspiration for a movie.
by Rich Watson
Oklahoma, according to Wikipedia, lies between a semi-arid zone, a humid continental one and a humid subtropical one. This means weather can get weird in a hurry. The biggest weather problem people have there is with tornadoes.
The staff of the Rock Cafe, on Route 66 in Stroud, OK, know about tornadoes. They survived one that nearly wiped the town out.
Route 66 restaurants
Sooner or later, all that driving along the Mother Road will make you hungry. Fortunately, there are lots of unique places to grab a bite. A few highlights, past and present:
- The Springfield, IL Maid-Rite Sandwich Shop allegedly has the first drive-thru window in the country. They date all the way back to 1921.
- Ted Drewes is the name of a St. Louis frozen custard company. The Dairy Queen Blizzard is a copycat of the TD original.
- In Amarillo, TX, the Big Texan Steak Ranch dares you to try their 72-ounce steak as part of a meal. If you can finish the meal in under an hour, it’s free.
- The Valentine Diner in Valentine, AZ was part of a chain of pre-fab diners from the thirties to the seventies.
- You may know the Bagdad Cafe in Newberry Springs, CA from the 1987 movie with Jack Palance, and its short-lived TV spinoff.
The Rock Cafe has its own cookbook, published in 2009. Current owner Dawn Welch co-wrote it. (More on her in a minute.) She says in the intro:
Many of these recipes were handed down to me by my mom, grandma, and even by customers, and I regard them as a legacy of sorts. This is the food we all hold close to our hearts… This is why people love the Rock. They can count on it, lean on it, and know there will always be something on the menu that brings them home.
That legacy took a long time to build.
The Rock Cafe and Dawn Welch
RC originated in 1936 by Roy Rieves. It was named for the local sandstone used to build the place. Greyhound buses stopped there during WW2.
In 1959, Mamie Mayfield acquired the lease on the restaurant and turned it into a 24-hour eatery. Truckers and families came to RC. It flourished until her retirement in 1983. A souvenir shop is named for her.
A decade later, Welch took over. The Yukon, OK native had traveled around the world as a Royal Caribbean Cruise Line purser, before returning to Oklahoma with the intent to open a sub shop, in Costa Rica. At RC, the owner convinced her to stay in Stroud to learn how to run a restaurant. She never left.
A character in the Pixar movie Cars (originally titled “Route 66”) is inspired by her. Here’s more about Welch and her connection to the movie.
RC picked up again under Welch. But then came the tornadoes…
The 1999 tornado outbreak
When I lived in Ohio, a tornado alarm was tested once a week. The first time I heard it, I thought aliens were about to invade the earth. I also remember getting caught there in a fierce wind once, that made me unable to pedal my bicycle. I thought I was gonna get lifted off the ground.
It was a summer breeze, though, compared to Oklahoma’s 1999 tornado outbreak.
It must’ve seemed like the movie Twister come to life. On May 3-4, 1999, 74 tornadoes hit Oklahoma and Kansas in only 21 hours. They caused $1.5 billion in property damage. Fifty people died.
Parts of Oklahoma City got hit by an F5 tornado. If you saw Twister, you’ll recall that’s the worst one. The Bridge Creek-Moore tornado, as it’s referred to now, had a wind speed of 321 miles per hour and lasted eighty-five minutes.
Afterward, President Clinton signed a federal disaster declaration. The Red Cross and FEMA came to assist in the recovery. Seven Oklahoma counties received federal financial aid.
In Stroud, a F3 tornado destroyed the Tanger Outlet Center and a foodservice distribution center. They were never rebuilt. It cost eight hundred jobs.
Oilfield manufacturing and tourism have helped Stroud recover.
Rock Cafe survives, even after a fire
RC’s neon sign suffered damage from the tornadoes. Business, as a result of the struggling local economy, declined.
Welch applied to the Oklahoma Capital Access Program. The funding she received enabled her to replace old wiring, install a new heating and air conditioning system and restore the sign. In 2001, RC made the National Register of Historic Places.
This was the time when Pixar came to do research for Cars. Production chief Jonas Rivera said of Welch:
We met people out on Route 66 and we’re thinking, at first, “What are you doing here? You’ve traveled the world. You’re educated. You speak three languages. But you run a restaurant out in the middle of nowhere.” But then, after an hour of having dinner with this person, you think, “Wow, this is perfect. I’m so glad you’re here because you’re keeping it alive.”
In 2008, a fire devastated RC. Welch rebuilt it and reopened the restaurant a year later. She also started the RC cookbook during this time. The Oklahoman newspaper named her Woman of the Year for 2009.
Additionally, the non-profit Oklahoma Route 66 Association has helped in the RC restoration, particularly with its neon sign.
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Route 66 attractions in Kansas and Oklahoma:
- Baxter Springs Independent Oil and Gas Service Station (Baxter Springs, KS): gas station from 1930
- Rainbow Bridge (Riverton, KS): single-span bridge
- Blue Whale of Catoosa (Catoosa, OK): iron and concrete whale at a local pond
- Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park (Foyil, OK): a sculpture park with the World’s Largest Concrete Totem Pole
- Pops 66 (Arcadia, OK): restaurant with a soda bottle-shaped neon sign
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Have you been to the Rock Cafe? Leave a comment and let me know!
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