Truckers Say This Dusty Roadside Diner Is California’s Greatest Restaurant

On the intersection of the 15 and 395 freeways, the place the Cajon Move stretches out of the San Bernardino Mountains, stands a 62-year-old A-frame constructing with tattered wood shingles and vaguely nation and western accents. Lengthy rows of 18-wheeler vans are parked out again. Inside, leather-based cubicles line the partitions whereas worn turquoise seats body a gleaming wood-grained counter, with the aroma of frying oil and scorching espresso wafting beneath the excessive wood-paneled ceilings. Wagon wheel lighting fixtures hover overhead whereas kitschy indicators like “We don’t have Wi-Fi. Discuss to one another, fake it’s 1995” dot the partitions.

This weathered roadside diner is the Outpost Cafe, and it’s one in every of a dying breed.

First inbuilt 1929, the Outpost originated as a gasoline station and six-seat diner. In 1961, the restaurant moved throughout the highway into its present constructing to make manner for the I-15 freeway. Truck drivers have lengthy been loyal patrons of the Outpost Cafe. Motorists regularly cease in with tales in regards to the previous wedding ceremony chapel that used to face on the property. Particular person servers and cooks have followers among the many locals within the close by city of Hesperia.

Final 12 months, Ryan Dandurand took possession of the Outpost Cafe from his father, Mike, who acquired the restaurant in 2010. The youthful Dandurand had been working at a carpet-cleaning firm and initially noticed the restaurant as a strategy to keep away from working in a go well with and tie. However as he realized in regards to the restaurant’s historical past, he realized he was persevering with the legacy of one thing far larger than himself.

Sherry Spearow, a server on the restaurant since 1992, says that the Outpost Cafe is the one place many truckers will cease to eat in the whole state of California. “They’ll go 50 miles out of their strategy to come right here as a result of it’s good hometown cooking,” she says. “Mother-and-pop locations are few and much between, and many of the truck stops now are taking the eating places out and placing in quick meals.”

Scott Colon, a truck driver based mostly out of Arizona, had simply completed delivering a load from Tucson to Camp Pendleton in San Diego. Drained and hungry, Colon determined to make the trek to what he calls “the perfect meals in California.”

“I got here 110 miles, though I’ve to go within the different route, simply so I can eat right here,” says Colon. “For those who do any touring, if you happen to go the previous routes like Route 66, there aren’t any diners anymore. It’s all Taco Bell, Jack within the Field, McDonald’s.” Colon estimates that locations just like the Outpost Cafe make up lower than 10 p.c of the meals choices on his routes crisscrossing the nation.

The Outpost Cafe’s meals is sweet old style American fare. Gadgets like chicken-fried steak with eggs and bacon or a 12-ounce rib-eye with loaded baked potatoes are standard. The Meatloaf Masterpiece sandwich with candy potato fries is a constant best-seller. The meals right here is uncomplicated and nostalgic — spaghetti and meatballs, California hen salad, salmon dinner. For truckers used to the tasteless choices of IHOP or Wendy’s, a juicy Cowboy Bacon Cheeseburger after a protracted drive is a reminder of house, of heat and care.

Many truckers sleep parked within the Outpost’s lot in a single day, in keeping with Andrea Welton, a server on the restaurant and Dandurand’s fiancee. They’ll use the close by Pilot station to bathe and be in line for the Outpost Cafe proper when it opens at 6 a.m. Breakfast service is normally abuzz with plates of divorced eggs, steak and hash, and sausage biscuits flying out of the kitchen.

“Throughout COVID, I believe individuals realized how vital truck drivers are,” mentioned Ryan Dandurand. “It’s not honest that they don’t have actual choices for meals once they’re delivering it to everybody else.”

However it’s not simply truckers who come by. Vacationers on their strategy to Las Vegas will cease by to have fun their wedding ceremony anniversaries, and households from Hesperia will deliver their youngsters and grandkids in for the hen tenders and mac and cheese. U.S. Route 395 goes on to Bishop, Mammoth Lakes, Lake Tahoe, and Reno, Nevada; Interstate 15 goes on to Las Vegas and Salt Lake Metropolis. Given its location, the Outpost Cafe has change into the go-to lunch break for a lot of making the journey from Southern California outwards.

Elvira Canelo, a prepare dinner on the Outpost Cafe for 30 years, credit the success of the place to its robust possession. “They’re the perfect individuals,” she says of her bosses. The Outpost Cafe was Mike Dandurand’s delight and pleasure. He developed relationships with the local people, and even when he turned too sick to work and retired to Mexico, he would verify the video digicam feeds each day and bug his son about little fixes. Have been the flooring clear? Have been there 4 shirts hanging on show on the entrance counter?

On November 23, 2022, Mike referred to as Spearow on the Outpost. “Ryan had simply left for Thanksgiving with Andrea. Mike referred to as and mentioned to me, ‘I’m simply checking in with you, is every little thing okay?’” They chatted about her household, whom Mike had identified for years, after which he mentioned to her, “Effectively, Ryan’s out of city … if there’s something I can do for you, I’m simply laying round, simply give me a name.”

Mike handed away later that day.

“I don’t wish to fail my dad and let this place flip right into a Taco Bell,” says the youthful Dandurand. “The one factor I take into consideration that he at all times advised me was: ‘Do the suitable factor and at all times handle individuals.’”

Dandurand is doing his finest to uphold the imaginative and prescient his father set forth for the restaurant — a mom-and-pop stronghold offering good meals and good service to its loyal followers 12 months after 12 months. The following time you’re en route from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, swing by the Outpost Cafe for a heat meal and a scorching cup of espresso, made by individuals who have been lovingly serving their neighborhood for generations.

The Outpost Cafe is positioned at 8685 U.S. Route 395, Oak Hills, CA, 92344. It’s open 6 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. every day.