Blondies Drive In — Restaurant in Naturita

Last summer when we traveled to my hometown of Cortez, Colorado, we decided to take an off-the-beaten path through the Gateway Canyon, south of Grand Junction. I had previously driven the first part of the trip on Highway 141, from Clifton to Gateway, but I was blown away with the landscape even further south! It is some of the most interesting and serene parts of Southwest Colorado!

Around lunch time we ended up in Naturita (population 546). This area of Nucla and Naturita has an amazing history, but I won't bore you with it with here. We stopped at a classic greasy spoon diner, Blondie's, for lunch.

You could tell that this restaurant was the epicenter of town from the number of patrons. I enjoyed my green chile cheeseburger and tater tots, and Bob liked his special of the day, brisket sandwich.

The decor was 1950s Americana. There were even fun murals in the restrooms, and an arcade off the dining room.

It's not completely clear when you go in that you should go up and order at the register. We sat at our booth for a few minutes before we figured that out.

There was a "For Sale" sign on the outside of the restaurant; I hope that this kind of American experience doesn't leave...

Went for a Sunday drive to explore and realized we were hungry just before we got to Naturita. There's not a whole lot there, but then we saw Blondies drive in. I didn't expect much for such a small town, but this place is awesome. There's so much to see inside, and the customer service is something they should be very proud of 👏🏻. I ordered the fish sandwich with seasoned curly fries and ranch. The ranch wasn't great, but all of the food was pretty darn good. If we take a drive that way again, I'll definitely be making plans to stop and eat there again. Thanks, Blondies, for a great meal and...

The best service we’ve ever had. Blondies stayed open an extra hour after their original closing time so we would have a place to eat. I was able to preorder burgers and milkshakes for 18 kids and adults. When we got there, they had all of our food set up for us. They even had our one and only veggie burger set up with a different color chair so it wouldn’t get eaten by the wrong kid. Thank you from the bottom of my heart blondies. Not only did our baseball team win their game but they had one of the best meals ever to follow. We will never forget your amazing...