Wheel Inn

Main St. (at the end of the ramp off I-10), Cabazon, CA - (909) 849-7012

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Posted By Michael Stern on 6/6/2002 9:44:00 AM

The Wheel Inn is a roadside classic. It is the great southwest truck stop, featuring round-the-clock hours and full-size, walk-in statues of a Tyrannosaurus Rex and an Apatosaurus out back. In the mini-mart adjacent to the restaurant, travelers can buy candies, smokes, and sundries; the knotty-pine walls of the café are arrayed with merchandise for sale: fancy cowboy-style belt buckles, novelty clocks, low-priced turquoise jewelry, scenic hand-made oil paintings (some on velvet). There is a short counter facing the pie case, and leatherette-upholstered booths are outfitted with Formica on which the wood-grain pattern has been worn out in places by decades of heavy plates and diners’ elbows.

Pie is the specialty of the house. These are true truck-stop pies – not elegant or fancy, but satisfying in a big, sweet sort of way. We like the banana cream filling, the sturdy apple pie, and the fresh strawberry made with firm berries.

Much of the food on the Wheel Inn menu is shockingly real. In a diner where the seasoned highway traveler would expect to find a non-caring cook using fast-food shortcuts, you find instead Karel Kothera, the seasoned chef who bought the Wheel Inn in 1992 and now runs it alongside his wife, Marie, who serves as hostess. Mr. And Mrs. Kothera are a class act, both in the dining room and the kitchen, and their efforts transform a basic truck stop into a really fine place to eat.

The hot turkey sandwich is a good example. It is made of meat from a roasted bird (not from a “turkey loaf”), and it is accompanied by mashed potatoes actually made from potatoes (not dehydrated potato flakes). French fries to accompany hamburgers or other sandwiches are delicious. They are made fresh on the premises, served hot and salty, just oily enough to make perfect culinary sense alongside a half-pound “Dino burger” (two quarter-pound patties) on a whole-wheat sesame bun with tomato slices, lettuce, pickle, a small cup of 1000-island dressing, and (optionally) raw or grilled slices of onion.

The preferred beverage for many of the working clientele is coffee, which is served in a bottomless cup; but if you want a true local treat here at the edge of the Coachella Valley, order a date shake. It’s a milk shake supercharged with shreds of locally-grown dates.

Scorecard

Overall: Legendary - Worth driving from anyplace

pie	breakfast
Date Milkshake	dino burger
Biscuits & Gravy

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"My waitress repeatedly told me this was the best banana cream pie in the world. Though I wouldn't go that far, the pie was still creamy and dense, with plenty of banana slices."
Cliff Strutz

"Wheel Inn specializes in comfort food, like this fine hot roast beef sandwich."
Cliff Strutz

"Mid-afternoon at the Wheel Inn. The only other customer and the waitress are entranced by the movie on the Disney Channel."
Cliff Strutz

"4am: Cabazon, California. The Wheel Inn is open round the clock. Its backyard Apatosaurus glows against the night sky. "
Michael Stern

"Inside the door in the dinosaur's tail is a staircase that leads to a second-story souvenir shop."
Michael Stern

"Huge dinosaur feet frame the Wheel Inn, which is actually a modest-sized truck stop diner."
Michael Stern

"The dino burger is a double (this one with grilled onions). The French fries are cut here and fried to order: delicious!"
Michael Stern