Bagdad Cafe Waits for Route 66’s Centennial

As Route 66 approaches its historic centennial, road-trippers and international tourists continue to descend on the Mojave Desert. The 2,448-mile highway stretches from Chicago to Santa Monica, but one of its most famous culinary stops now has a closed kitchen and an uncertain future.

The Bagdad Cafe, a remote desert diner in Newberry Springs, California, entered a period of limbo after the death of its longtime proprietor, Andrea Pruett, in January. The highway will mark 100 years since its official establishment on November 11, 1926, while a global preservation movement highlights the fragile state of the family-owned landmarks that once defined the American road trip.

The decline of Route 66’s original towns and businesses began after President Dwight D. Eisenhower championed the Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956. The act launched construction of the Interstate Highway System, which was designed to bypass slow-moving local routes with high-speed, multi-lane freeways. In the Mojave Desert, the completion of Interstate 40 in 1972 moved traffic ten miles north and dealt a fatal blow to local commerce.

Further east, the original railroad town of Bagdad, California, was among the places lost to the bypass. Founded in the 1880s as a watering station for Southern Pacific Railroad steam locomotives, it became a bustling desert community and a popular Route 66 rest stop. Alice Lawrence owned the original Bagdad Cafe, whose local eatery was famed for having the only jukebox and dance floor for miles.

After Interstate 40 opened, Bagdad quickly withered into a ghost town. Today, a single scruffy saltcedar tree is all that remains of the settlement. Its name, however, was immortalized globally in 1987 by the West German cult film *Bagdad Cafe*, released in Germany as *Out of Rosenheim*.

Directed by Percy Adlon, the comedy-drama followed an unlikely bond between Brenda, a stressed cafe owner played by CCH Pounder, and Jasmin, a stranded German tourist played by Marianne Sägebrecht. The film’s Academy Award-nominated theme song, “Calling You,” was sung by Jevetta Steele. Together, the movie and song became an international sensation, particularly in Europe and Japan, sparking decades of tourism to the Mojave Desert.

Andrea Pruett and her husband Harold sought to capitalize on that international appeal when they purchased the Sidewinder Cafe in Newberry Springs in 1995. They had originally moved to the area to operate a 640-acre ostrich ranch, but the venture ultimately proved unsuccessful. After learning that the wood-shingled diner was for sale, their son, actor Harold P. Pruett II, encouraged them to buy it. The couple promptly renamed it the Bagdad Cafe, turning the modest building into a physical sanctuary for fans of the movie.

Pruett ran the establishment for nearly thirty years with Southern hospitality and desert grit. Born into poverty in Arkansas, she welcomed travelers from around the world and taught herself basic French and German phrases to communicate with foreign tourists.

She also fiercely protected the remote outpost. During the late 1990s, an armed intruder demanded cash from the register with a wooden board, and Pruett drew a shotgun from beneath the counter. After the man surrendered and said his family was stranded in their car without money, she put away the gun, fed them, and gave them traveling money after requiring them to wash their dishes.

The family endured severe personal losses. In February 2002, their son Harold died at age 26 from an accidental drug overdose. His acting career had included roles in *Parker Lewis Can’t Lose* and the 1995 film *Embrace of the Vampire*. Pruett’s husband died two months later, and her older son, Corky, died in 2022.

The business also faced environmental and economic pressures. The COVID-19 pandemic halted international travel and caused the kitchen to close permanently. In 2021, Pruett’s home burned down, so she slept in a red vinyl booth inside the diner rather than leave the property.

As her physical health and memory declined in her final years, supporters organized to preserve the cafe. In August 2023, the remnants of Tropical Storm Hilary battered the Mojave Desert, causing severe roof leaks and interior flooding. Sarah Jane Woodall, a desert travel YouTuber known as “Wonderhussy,” organized an online fundraiser that brought in more than $25,000 from global donors to install a new roof.

French filmmaker Léa De Carmo documented Pruett’s final years in *The Keeper of Bagdad Cafe*. The film captures the community effort to assist the aging owner, who spent her remaining days in an RV parked beside the cafe.

After Pruett died at age 85 in January, her family kept the doors open for the steady stream of road-trippers. Mark Bradley, a 26-year veteran of the property, serves as manager alongside local residents Matt Parker and Marian Box, who are the current caretakers. They do not cook food, but they sell souvenirs, play the movie on a screen behind the counter, and serve instant Nescafé to visitors.

Inside, the walls remain densely covered with signed dollar bills, guest book entries, and international flags left by travelers. Pruett’s grandson, Greg Landers, is coordinating with the family to determine the diner’s long-term future. Her ashes rest temporarily in an urn near the cafe’s entrance, and Landers plans to eventually bury them next to her youngest son at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles.

As preservationists look toward the 2026 centennial, the Bagdad Cafe remains a testament to the enduring, cross-cultural appeal of Route 66, operating as a living museum in the heart of the Mojave.