Midpoint Cafe and Gift Shop — Restaurant in Adrian

Aridian, Texas is in the middle of nowhere! It may have been an essential way point back when there was only the lone 2-lane Route 66 that ran from Chicago to the shore in California. Imagine this single ribbon of asphalt that wound its ever important way as the link Americans used in days past to launch into the somewhat unknown world of traveling this vast country.

Midpoint Cafe is just that... mid way between Chicago and California on Route 66. It was both a blessing and maybe a curse, depending if you were an optimistic or a pessimistic in your pre-interstate road trips, as it was either "half way there", or "we are only half way" to our hoped destination.

Today Midpoint Cafe is just off I-40, extremely easy to visit and an absolute oasis if you are fortunate enough to not be so busy with life and traveling that you pass it by. Imagine again, a simple yet delightful menu that is posted daily on a white board in colored marker, that is highlighted by a genuinely chipper hostess that genuinely greets you with a 1950's era and style greetings when you enter this 1950's looking cafe. This wonderfully air conditioned cafe in the middle of the roasting Texas summer heat is an oaswof that is all they had to offer, but don't kid yourself, this place is so much more than just wonderful memories, memorabilia, and A/C. The homemade assortment of pies in the olden era glass fronted cooler on display seem to be a magnet to many of the awed travelers who were drawn to pull in and take a chance on this possible nugget of gold.

Unfortunately, I couldn't eat anything that was written on the white board on the Sunday afternoon, just before the stated closing time of 3pm. I share both of these facts because it goes to the quality and value of the ladies who now gladly keep this history spot alive. I couldn't eat anything on the board because I am, confoundedly gluten allergic. Even in 2020, this is such a curse in for both sufferers and even sophisticated restaurants. I disappointedly asked the chipper hostess, "... can I just have a salad"?, which she kind of disappointedly said, "... would you like cheese and bacon on that"?

Chipper Hostess (CH) went to the small Cafe kitchen to see if it was possible to deviate from the white board menu. In literally less than a minute she hurried to my dinner style booth and kindly and proudly stated that the cook said that they have... gluten free bread! I was so unbelieving that this remote little Cafe with such a wonderful yet limited menu would in my wildest dreams have GF anything that I just stared at her for what seemed like much too long for my mind to process this information. I finally said "Really" with a bit of disbelief and insecurity in my mind and voice. This possibility allowed me to then look to the white board and select a simple and always lite, BLT.

The CH, in another couple of minutes came back to my table and asked me if my GF challenge was "preference or allergy"? Wow, this place really cared about me and my needs, almost as if I was family.

In another minute or so, CH asked me if I wanted "multi-grain" or "white"? Were they kidding me? As a GF person in the middle of nowhere was being given a choice? This was too good to be true and I was being over come by my past experiences and untrusting heart that this place might just be trying, intentionally or not, to just pull a fast one and try and feed me whatever they had, GF or not.

Well when the equally happy cook came out to my table to inquire if I wanted my bread toasted or plain, I in passing asked "... what kind of GF bread do you have"? She motioned, "just a minute" and disappeared back into the kitchen, only to bring a well wrapped and isolated loaf of bread that was from a well known international brand of GF products. I was now content that the bread was safe and they were handling with all caution.

Then one of the most gracious and considerant things happened... Seriously sorry, I hit the limit for words of this media site... I'll try to finish on Midpoint Cafe...

Shoot and Scoot?? Nah........not this time. This year I intended to get off of my bike and meet some folks who work/live on and around Route 66. I made it to the Mid-Point Café around an hour before it closed. And what a place it is!!! It's the feeling I wish I would have had as a kid where all of my favorite cartoons would become reality. Mid-Point Café brings the glory days of 66 to life with it's history, it's memorabilia, and most of all Dennis ( new ownership ). He didn't know me from Adam but made me feel like his favorite nephew; and the Mid-Point Café staff is so inviting; each with a smile that is hard to say "no" to. (I will not embarrass the lady from Vega who received me so I will not mention names; however you're gorgeous:) I asked for coffee which hit the spot and that "Ugly Pie"......... made me want to smack my mama. Dennis shares himself with you, shares some café history, some of his pies (which he himself bakes). That all adds up to great conversation with tasty food= A great experience. Dennis probably does a lot of things to make you feel valued which gets lost in a daily grind so I want to extract something that he did for me. It was the nicest thing someone had done for me in recent memory on my 5700+mile bike ride. After chit chatting his ear off I was the last to leave the café. I had purchased some gifts from his amazing gift shop when he gifts me a freedom bell for my motorcycle!!! Bikers would understand the significance and those who are Lonewolves understand even more. Dennis as you can tell I made it home safe (albeit not without peril) so I must say thank you. You are amongst the highlights of my expedition and I look forward to seeing you and the Mid-Point café again. I get cheek ache each time I look at the pics Dennis took of me looking like a burnt biscuit outside of his café just before I hit the road again. Go Mid-Point Café!!

Best regards,

Zeke Ohan

ps. Dennis coined the term "Shoot and scoot" = Hitting landmarks, taking pics,...

We stopped here with our family on a road trip and the older woman with short grey hair and black glasses was an absolutely scum of the earth. There was a younger blonde girl with pink tencel in her hair that was super kind and helpful but she was doing everything by herself. That old lady was talking to everyone but us and refused to take our order until the blonde girl asked her for help while she was helping a huge line of people cash out. When she finally came up to us she told us we needed to hurry up bc they were turning off the grill in 20 minutes. Mind you we had been waiting for much longer than that. After we got our orders in my dad took my two nieces next door to the gift shop. One of them accidentally bumped into something so my dad let the staff know that he was picking it up and then apologized. When he returned back to the spot where this happened that old lady from the restaurant was helping pick up the items. My dad let her know he was picking them up so she handled off the clean up. This should’ve been the end of this situation but that old hag went around the restaurant, gift shop, and kitchen to tell EVERYONE. Staff and visitors that we had wild children that don’t behave and we’re destroying everything in the store. That this store wasn’t a Walmart and we shouldn’t have come in there. We caught her telling everyone in the gift store and we ignored it but then she went into the kitchen and continued to make the situation sound like we gave the kid matches and knives and told them to burn it to the ground. We confronted her again and she began to yell at us in front of the whole restaurant and told us not to come back with kids. There was only two kids in this group 5 and 6 years old. We all got up in left when that happened and she continued to scream at us on our way out. PLEASE DONT COME HERE! That woman is a miserable, sad, and old hag who will...