Cruisers Cafe 66

233 Historic Route 66, Williams, AZ 86046
Phone: 928-635-2445

East < GO > West

Housed in a renovated the 1940's Skinner's Gulf Station and the adjacent 1910 Postal Telegraph Co. building the Cruisers Cafe is an interesting place for a meal and entertainment. Live music was playing on the patio when we were there in 2013 which is kind of cool because for many years the town bandstand stood where the old garage and gas station is now.

Cruisers is located on the eastbound Route 66 at 3rd St. towards the west end of downtown Williams. That's a cool car parked parked on the canopy above the patio, but the rest of us have to park on the street.

The bandstand was built in 1908 and was gone by 1921, replaced by the red, white and blue California bungalow style White Service Station, which sold Red Crown Gasoline. That station was later replaced by the 1940s Skinner's Gulf Station that stands today. Skinner's became a Humble Oil station before being sold. With the sale Skinner's became the Bennett's Auto Service garage. By 1988 the garage was Tiffany's Restaurant.

The building next to the old gas station originally housed the 1910 Postal Telegraph Company office until the 1940s when it became home to the Signal Radio and Appliances store, it's a dining room now. In 1962 this became the Western Auto store, where you could buy a 23 inch console TV for only $9.50 per month. Try that at your local auto parts store today! A historic marker on the Postal Telegraph building reads:

"Telegraph Building
Telegraph service came to Williams in 1894. The Postal Telegraph Co. was located here in 1910, when this office was built, until the 1940's. At some time the building was divided to share space with Ziriax Photo Shop. The town bandstand was located in the lot to the west for many years."

Cruiser's occupies several buildings at this intersection. The building on the far right edge of this image was the White Garage, which was apparently built sometime after the White Service Station. For most of the the early 50s to at least the mid-70s this was a auto body shop. as of 2018 it was the Cruiser's BrewCade and has been repainted to match the cafe. So what is a BrewCade? It's a cross between an game arcade and a brew pub, sound like fun?

The dark brick building on the far left edge of this image is Cruiser's Gift Shop in the old Foster's Indian Store adjacent on the east side of the Telegraph office building.

These buildings are mentioned on the National Register of Historic Places as part of the Williams Historic Business District. Apparently not all of them qualify as contributing historically. For example, the service station has been too heavily modified to qualify.

Photo(s): 2013