Club Cafe

Historic Route at 6th St., Santa Rosa, NM
Phone:

East < GO > West

The Club Cafe was established in 1935 by Newton Epps with room for 24 patrons. That building was later torn down and replaced by the larger cafe. A November 1936 article states that Mrs. Epps and Sons open the Club Cafe in a new building with all new equipment, no mention of Mr. Epps. A few years later Floyd Shaw and Phil Craig took over the cafe and introduced the "Fat Man" logo. A few owners later the cafe closed in the early 1990s. The Campos later purchased the building and the rights to the "Fat Man" logo.

The building was about to be torn down when we went by in 2015. As you can see the dining room was a bit of a mess at the time.

The sign on the dining room wall proudly proclaimed the business had been here since 1935 and had served two million sour dough biscuits.

The original "fat man" sign was on display at the Route 66 Auto Museum when we were there in 2012. The Campos use the "Fat Man" image at their family restaurant, Joseph's Bar & Grill located not far from where the Club Cafe stood on Route 66. Apparently nobody knows if the Fat Man was modeled after a real person or just represents how happy and well fed a customer would be after dining at the Club Cafe.

The signs were still there in 2015. The sign is located across the restaurant parking lot from where the building was, it is/was just past 6th Street and Parker Ave.

Photo(s) 2012, 2015