The Midpoint Cafe, in Adrian Texas, is, as the name suggests, right at the midpoint of the original Route 66, 1139 miles from either end. Like most of the Mother Road, it was long since bypassed by an interstate highway, in this case I40 as it passes through the Texas panhandle, but it’s a quick detour, and well worth the stop if you like Route 66 nostalgia or great hamburgers.

Walking into the smallish dining room, brimming with the schmaltz associated with our American fantasy, I was very pleasantly surprised to get one of the best hamburgers of recent memory. In fact, I have described it to many people as the hamburger upon which all other hamburgers should be measured, the standard-bearer for the classic American burger. This shouldn’t be surprising for the place upon which “Flo’s V-8 Café,” of Cars fame was based, but I was pleasantly taken aback. Mind you, there was nothing special about it save its greatness, but it did epitomize the roadside diner experience for me.

In an adjacent room, there were plenty of souvenirs to be found as well. Although we satisfied ourselves with a couple of postcards, other patrons, who mostly seemed to be from other countries, here taking in the legend of our recent past, were quite enthralled with these trinkets. If we weren’t confined to our 2005 Toyota Matrix for the foreseeable future, I might have been too. Maybe it’s just because some part of it is my own, but I feel as though those old visions of an earlier time are worth holding on to. I’m glad that others do too.