Want to experience the fabulous 1950s? You don’t need a time machine; all you need is to visit Peggy Sue’s 50s Diner, where you can experience the pop culture that defined this memorable era in US history.
inspired by the movies
Situated in the Californian town of Yermo, about halfway between Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Peggy Sue’s 50s Diner is on the site of an original roadside diner that was built in 1954 out of materials from the nearby Union Pacific railway yard. In the early 1980s, it was acquired by Peggy Sue Gabler, who had worked in the film industry, and her husband, Champ. The industrious couple converted the property into a popular tourist destination, which opened in 1987 and includes a diner, a gift shop and a dinosaur park.
eat to the beat
A statue of the famous cartoon character Betty Boop greets visitors to the eat to the beat diner, which is decorated with the memorabilia that Peggy Sue and Champ have collected throughout their lives. These include posters and statues of celebrities like Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and The Blues Brothers. The menu offers a variety of classic American food like burgers, fries and milkshakes, with fun names like the Marlon Brando Mushroom Cheeseburger, the Buddy Holly Bacon Cheeseburger and the Richard Nixon Turkey Sandwich.
gifts for everyone
Next to the diner is the 5 & Dime Store, which includes a gift shop, a soda fountain, an ice cream parlour and a pizza parlour, all with a cool 1950s vibe of course. But perhaps the most surprising attraction is the outdoor dinosaur park, Diner-saur Park, which Peggy Sue and Champ created because it was reminiscent of roadside attractions of their youth. It has giant metal dinosaurs and an enormous statue of the movie monster King Kong, surrounded by fountains, ponds and trees.
So next time you’re on Route 15 between LA and Vegas, consider taking the Ghost Town Road exit to visit this fun, fabulous attraction!
Chicken Steak from the ‘50s
A life-sized Betty Boop on roller skates greets you on entering Peggy Sue’s, a restaurant in Yermo, California that offers the authentic experience of a 1950’s roadside diner. This was the decade marked by the glamour of Hollywood and the birth of rock ’n roll. It was also that of heightened tensions with Soviet Russia and the consolidation of the modern America identity with its rapidly-expanding middle class of consumers. Peggy Sue’s is more than a place to grab a quick bite, it includes an ice cream parlour and a soda fountain that serves ice cream soda. Outside there is a park with dinosaur sculptures, waterfalls, fountains and ponds. A large gift shop sells memorabilia, including Peggy Sue’s Diner mugs, t-shirts and more. Its owner, Peggy Sue Gabler, bought the diner in the 1980s. Inspired by her experiences in the movie industry, she had big dreams for the place, as she explained.
Peggy Sue Gabler (American accent): When we first opened the diner, when we first came here, it was closed up and it was called The Country Kitchen, and it had plants hanging all over and it was decorated like a country kitchen. And we looked at it and we though, “Ugh, this isn’t quite right.” And I had been in the movies in the 70s, about 70 or 80 or 100 movies I was in, and I had little parts, and I had memorabilia from those movies that I was in, pictures, different things, so we thought, you know what, we’ll put that stuff in the diner – and I thought if this doesn’t work, if one person comes in and says, “This is so cheesy, I’m just getting out of here, I’m taking it all down.” So we put everything up in the diner… and the first people who came in were like, “Oh my gosh, this is so great!” So we were so happy, so I put up more and more and more.
CLIENTELE
Peggy Sue’s has fed a number of celebrities over the years, including Frankie Avalon, Dick Van Dyke, Lady Gaga, Whoopi Goldberg, Nicolas Cage, Laurence Fishburne, Kristen Stewart and Taylor Lautner. Mostly, however, it is international visitors that stop by, says Gabler.
Peggy Sue Gabler: They’re mostly tourists. We get a lot of foreign tourists from France, Italy, Germany, Hungary, everywhere. We get tourists. Just a few minutes ago, there were a hundred people in here from different countries. It’s a funny thing. I think people, over the thirty years, have gone back and said, “If you go to the United States, you have to go to Peggy Sue’s,” so that’s been a wonderful thing. We just love the tourists and they’re kind of shy, you know, they don’t want to say anything, and they’ll ask me who I am. I’ll say, “I’m Peggy Sue,” and they’ll say, “You’re Peggy Sue!” They’re so excited. So it’s fun to take a picture with them or something.
WHAT’S FOR LUNCH?
We then asked Gabler to list some of Peggy Sue’s specialities.
Peggy Sue Gabler: Chicken fried steak is a piece of beefsteak that’s been tenderized, put in flour, cornmeal and buttermilk, and it’s fried, it’s really good. You’ll have to try some of it. We have sandwiches like the Philly steak sandwich, and all of our sandwiches are named after people, like the Tina Turner Tuna Sandwich, the Frankie Avalon Philly Steak Sandwich, Milton Berle Cheese Omelet, you know, they’re sort of a play on words.
ASK GRANDMA
These are genuine dishes that were popular in the 1950s, as Gabler explained.
Peggy Sue Gabler: My grandmother made them, my grandmother when I was growing up. She made chicken fried steak and fried chicken and meatloaf. We have a big meatloaf recipe that we love and everybody orders that. Now you can get a hot meatloaf sandwich, with two pieces of meatloaf on white bread with gravy on the top and mashed potatoes.
IN THE FAMILY
And, says Gabler, it is important to honour the past and keep family traditions alive.
Peggy Sue Gabler: I think without the past, there is no future. If you don’t honour the past, you don’t know where you came from. My husband and I, Champ, we’ve had it 32 years and we just keep everything going… and we’ve had all of our kids working here… All the kids have worked in here, all the grandkids.