Posted by Michael Stern on May 04, 2006
At the front of Joe & Aggie’s, cases and shelves display souvenirs of Route 66: playing cards, key rings, hats, and nostalgic books about the “Mother Road” that took travelers through Holbrook long before Interstate 40 bypassed the town. Despite the interstate, Holbrook remains one of those places where you can get a real feel for what life was like along western roads in the two-lane days. It still has the famous “Sleep in a Wigwam” motel; there are some fascinating pawn shops and Native-American jewelry emporia; and at Joe & Aggie’s you can have a real old-fashioned roadside diner meal.
Tables are outfitted with squeeze bottles of honey for squirting onto sopaipillas (puffy triangles of fried bread); and meals begin with a basket of chips and an empty bowl in which you decant some hot, pepper-flecked hot sauce for dipping. The sign on the front window boasts of “Mexican and American food”; but in fact, the menu at Joe & Aggie’s is not quite either; it is a blend of Mexican and American that is unique to the southwest. After the chips and salsa, you move on to such meals as enchiladas made with red or green chili, big stuffed burros, crisp tacos, or chicken fried steak with potatoes and hot sopaipillas on the side.
Joe & Aggie’s is the oldest restaurant in Holbrook, dating back to 1946, the year Bobby Troup headed west in his Buick convertible and wrote (Get Your Kicks on) Route 66.
Overall: Worth driving from anyplace
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Reviewers "Must Eats" List
green chili enchilada
($7.00)
burro
($6.00)
"Huevos rancheros with delicious greeen chiles."
icrmg
"Still great food."
icrmg
"A time-warp cafe along old Route 66"
Michael Stern
