Route 66 Food Road Trip: Dishes State by State

A Route 66 food road trip crosses eight states from Chicago to Santa Monica, and the food changes with each state line. Plan a dish for each stretch, such as the fried onion burger in Oklahoma and red or green chile in New Mexico, and keep a list of your stops so the trip leaves a record.

What is the Route 66 food road trip?

U.S. Route 66 was established in 1926 and decommissioned in 1985. At its longest it ran about 2,400 miles through Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California. The National Park Service lists many buildings, bridges and road alignments on the route in the National Register of Historic Places, and many are historic motels, filling stations and cafes.

Heavy traffic on the road helped create early fast food, including drive-through restaurants and regional chains. That is the story of the food, too. The road fed travelers cheaply and quickly, and the dishes that survived are the ones that were quick to cook and cheap to make.

How should you plan eating along Route 66?

Do not try to eat everything. The road is long and a day of driving covers a few hundred miles at most, so pick one food idea for each state and let the rest be luck. Start in Illinois and the Midwest with a city meal, then pick up the road in Missouri and Kansas, where the route is short. In Oklahoma, plan around a burger. In Texas, read up on the regional dishes before you go. In New Mexico and Arizona, plan around chile and a rest. In California, end with the coast.

Be flexible about hours. Many small cafes close early, open late or close on Sundays, and a surprise closure is common. Always keep a second option within twenty miles, and write down the name of any cafe you pass that looks promising, so that you can come back to it on the way home.

What is the Route 66 onion burger?

The fried onion burger comes from El Reno, Oklahoma, and local history places its start in the 1920s, a hard time for farm economies. The beef patties are cooked smash-style with a large amount of thinly sliced onions. Cheese, pickles and other toppings are optional. The onions stretched a small amount of beef, which is why it is also called the Depression burger.

Local sources say the method has barely changed in nearly a century, and the town celebrates the burger. If you stop, order one plain, so you can taste the onion and the beef, then add toppings on the next. Pick it up and eat it hot, since the onions soften as it cools.

What is New Mexico green chile, and how do you order it?

New Mexico's food is built on chile. Hatch Valley is the best-known chile-growing area, and the harvest runs from late summer into autumn, when green chile is roasted, peeled and frozen for the year ahead. The state's official question is red or green, meaning which chile you want with your meal. Answer Christmas if you want both.

Sopaipillas are puffed, fried quick breads served as table bread with honey or honey butter, and they can be stuffed to become an entree. Posole, a thick stew of hominy and pork, is a Christmas food and a year-round comfort, and blue corn tortillas are a signature. Pueblo, Apache and Navajo cooks shaped the cuisine long before the road, alongside the traditions of New Spain. The Albuquerque Route 66 diners guide is a good local start.

How do you pick a good diner along Route 66?

Diners along Route 66 are part of the point, and the best way to choose one is to look for signs that a place is real: a short menu, a grill you can see, a counter with regulars and a few things done well. Ask what the cook makes best, and order that.

For Arizona, the Flagstaff downtown guide covers a Route 66 town, and the Texas regional dishes guide explains dishes such as chicken-fried steak that you may meet on the Texas stretch.

How can Mosey help you plan a Route 66 trip list?

Mosey is built for exactly this kind of trip. Start a list before you leave and add a note on each stop: the state, the dish you hope to try and the days it is open. Send the list to everyone in the car by link, so any of them can add a diner they spot. Follow friends who have driven the road to see where they rate and save places.

On the road, rate the dish you ate, not just the place, and use tags to remember what stood out. Rating five different places of one kind earns the Sampler mark, and the Dishes page shows what people are rating near you.

The same method works on the Pacific Coast Highway and the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the US food guides have more.

What should you remember before you set out?

Check hours with each place, carry snacks and water and leave room for detours. The best meal on a road like this is often the one you did not plan.

Open the Mosey app, start a Route 66 trip list and rate each dish as you eat it.