Route 66 Vinita Oklahoma

Clanton's Cafe on Route 66 in Vinita Oklahoma,  October 2016.  

After spending so much time poking through the remains of Afton it was past 2:00 in the afternoon and I was getting hungry.  I skipped stopping at Little Cabin Creek Bridge or Vinita Inn Motel and kept going till I saw the "EAT" sign that I had read about.  

Clanton's Cafe opened in 1927 and is the longest continually family owned restaurant along the whole of Route 66, and has been operated by four generations of the same family.  

Even though the place was busy, we were able to get seated right away.  As I watched the activity around me I saw that even though there were empty tables, they didn't stay empty very long.  They had a nice steady flow of customers.  Of course this was at 2:30 on a weekday.  I'm glad we weren't trying to get in at noon. 

The food was really good.  If I get to continue my slow exploration of Route 66, I'll have to pass this way again, so a detour may be in order.  


I found an article on Roadfood.com by Jane & Michael Stern.  I'll quote the first part of the article.

"Clanton’s does not look like a Route 66 landmark because it was gutted by fire in 1999 and totally rebuilt. The original version was one of the first restaurants to open along the Oklahoma stretch of “America’s Main Street.”

When Sweet Tater Clanton christened his restaurant in 1927, most of the new road was not yet paved, and it said that to attract customers he used to walk out the front door and bang a pot and pan together when he spied someone about to drive past. Today, Sweet Tater’s great granddaughter, Melissa, and her husband, Dennis Patrick, run the place as a town cafe where locals gather and sightseers along the old Mother Road are welcome.

Lunch specials include ham & beans on Wednesday and catfish every Friday, and the every day menu lists pot roast, calf fries and grilled pork chops as “customer favorites.” We were wowed by the chicken fried steak."