The Riviera-- Gardner, Illinois-- Part 1

One of the must-stops for anyone driving Route 66 in Illinois before 1972, and especially since that year because of the food served by Peggy Kraft and the antics and jokes of her husband Bob behind the bar. You had to hear him tell you why he was the luckiest man in the world.

The first time we went to the Riviera back in 2002, Peggy went upstairs and woke Bob up and had him come down and talk to us. That was just the kind of people they were.

We'd visited several times and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves when Bob was behind the bar, but the last several times, we were told he was resting, so think that age was catching up with him.

Age caught up with them and we were very sad to find out last fall that they were closing down the place since they couldn't find a buyer. We found out that New Year's Day was going to be the last business day, so decided to pay one last visit to wish them luck.

It turned out that the two of us and over a hundred other friends and well-wishers had the same idea. Our first clue to the crowd were all the cars parked out on 66. Hard to find a place to park, even harder to get in the door, and forget ordering a meal or finding a place to sit.

They were well-liked and rightly so.

A Proper Send-Off to Two True Ambassadors of the Mother Road. --RoadDog