The Golden Light Cafe

The Golden Light Cafe opened on July 4, 1946, on what was then the main Route 66 alignment through Amarillo — Sixth Avenue running through the San Jacinto neighborhood west of downtown. The cafe occupied a small narrow storefront in a row of similar small commercial buildings that had been built in the 1920s and 1930s to serve the booming Route 66 traffic. The founder, a Greek immigrant who had run small restaurants in other cities, named the place for the gold-tinted light fixtures that originally illuminated the dining room.

The cafe survived all the events that killed most of its Route 66 contemporaries — the 1953 rerouting of 66 off Sixth Avenue, the 1971 completion of I-40 south of the city, the decades of decline that followed, the rise of fast-food chains, the collapse of the Sixth Street commercial district through the 1970s and 1980s. The Golden Light kept its doors open through all of it, never closing for any substantial period, never abandoning its small storefront, never being substantially remodeled. The same dining room that fed Route 66 travelers in 1950 feeds them today.

The cafe has changed ownership several times across its history but has remained essentially the same operation. The current ownership has been in place for many years and operates the cafe and the adjacent Cantina as a combined enterprise. The cafe's role as the oldest surviving Texas 66 restaurant gives it both substantial historical significance and ongoing relevance as the Sixth Street district has revived; the Golden Light's continued operation through the bad decades is one of the principal reasons the district had something to come back to.

The Golden Light's menu is short and unchanged across decades. The signature item is the cheeseburger, hand-formed and cooked on a flat-top griddle, available in single-patty, double-meat, and various topped variants. The double-meat cheeseburger is the order most regulars recommend — substantial enough to satisfy without being absurd, with the kind of properly griddled patty and toasted bun that defines a real burger. Add green chile or jalapenos for some West Texas heat; add bacon for richness.

Tex-Mex plates form the rest of the menu — beef and chicken enchiladas, crispy tacos, the cheese enchilada plate, and the classic Frito chili pie (a bed of Fritos topped with chili, cheese, and onions, the kind of regional dish that has nearly disappeared from menus elsewhere). The Tex-Mex is competent rather than ambitious; this is not a destination Mexican restaurant, but the basic dishes are well-executed and the chili in particular has its devotees. The chiles are real, the cheese is real, and nothing about the food pretends to be more than it is.

Drinks include the basic bar lineup — Texas beers on draft and bottle, a small selection of standard cocktails, decent margaritas, and the cafe's signature shot offerings. Prices are notably reasonable — a double-meat cheeseburger with fries runs about $11, a substantial Tex-Mex plate $12 to $14, beers $4 to $6. For a restaurant with this much history, the menu is refreshingly free of either celebrity-priced gimmicks or tourist-trap markups.

The Golden Light Cantina, the adjacent music venue that opened in the 1990s, has become a major part of the Golden Light experience. The Cantina hosts live music — singer-songwriters, country acts, Texas Red Dirt bands, and the occasional touring blues or roots musician — several nights a week, generally Wednesday through Saturday. The space is small and the music is loud; cover charges range from no-cover for smaller acts to $10 to $20 for bigger names. The Cantina's crowd skews local — Amarillo residents, students from West Texas A&M in nearby Canyon, regional musicians and music fans.

The cafe and the Cantina together provide one of the most genuine Route 66 evening experiences in Amarillo. Travelers can have an early dinner of burgers in the historic cafe, walk next door for a beer and live music in the Cantina, and experience both the mid-twentieth-century cafe culture and the contemporary West Texas music scene in a single evening. The two spaces share parking and ownership; the transition from one to the other is essentially a few steps down the sidewalk.

The cafe is open Monday through Saturday 11am to 10pm and is closed Sunday. The Cantina runs its own schedule, generally evenings only and with later closing on music nights. Reservations are not accepted at either; waits for tables on weekend evenings can be substantial. Plan to walk the broader Sixth Street historic district as part of the visit, and consider combining the Golden Light with the antique shops and other businesses along the strip for a half-day or full-day Amarillo Route 66 experience.