Retro Diner Offers Meals On Wheels Post Falls Cafe’s Hot Rod Motif Reflects U.S. Love Affair With Cars

Old-fashioned gas station and oil company signs cover the walls of the Hot Rod Cafe in a wash of bright colors.

Outside, old-fangled gas pumps greet customers under red neon lights. A red 1934 Ford High Boy spins on top of the new building just off Seltice Way.

“America’s love of the automobile is everywhere,” said Hot Rod Cafe owner Rob Elder as he gestured to the automobile memorabilia covering his restaurant, which opens today.

He hopes to capitalize on that affair between humans and their gas-guzzling counterparts and hopes that classic car theme will catapult his single cafe into a national chain of similar restaurants.

“You go into a lot of restaurants, and you see lots of cars, but you never see any restaurants that are specifically car-oriented,” he said.

Until now.

A canary yellow 1929 Dodge Coupe shines in the entry of the restaurant, and as diners wait for available tables, they can recline in couches fashioned out of the ends of old cars.

Hot rod enthusiasts can check out classics inside the restaurant, such as a purple ‘34 Ford Roadster with a flame paint job and a yellow ‘57 Chevy Sedan Delivery pulling a ‘67 Meyers flat-bottom speedboat. Their children can get ice cream out of the sawed-off end of ‘49 Chevy truck.

The menu includes burgers, pizza, steaks, salmon, salads and pasta. The restaurant seats about 140 people in the dining room, 60 in the full bar and in the summer, 50 to 60 outside, Elder said. There’s a game loft with two pool tables and video games.

The cafe employes 100 people. City building permits estimate the value of the building at $493,924.

People have been curious about what’s going on inside, said Jala Curtis, a hostess at the restaurant.

“We’ve got people driving by, peeking inside the windows when we’re not open,” she said. “It’s going to bring a lot of tourists by.”

Kerri Thoreson, executive director of the Post Falls Chamber of Commerce, shares Curtis’ assessment of the impact the Hot Rod Cafe will have on the area: it will draw people off Interstate 90 and into the city, she said.

“It looks great from the freeway. It’s unique,” she said.

Jackie Parker owns nearby Steve’s Sports Dugout, a sports restaurant and bar. She said she’s excited about the opening of the cafe because it will bring people down Seltice Way - the street her business shares with the Hot Rod Cafe.

“I think it’s going to be really good for the area,” she said.

The Hot Rod Cafe and its accompanying line of apparel sold at the restaurant will increase Post Falls’ name recognition in the region, Thoreson said.

“I think that the Hot Rod Cafe is going to have a similar impact on Post Falls that the factory outlets had in the beginning of the decade,” she said. “People will say, ‘Oh, Post Falls? I’ve been to the Hot Rod Cafe.”’

Elder, who owned Cricket’s Restaurant and Oyster Bar in Coeur d’Alene, is focusing all his attention on the Hot Rod Cafe now.

“I love it a lot,” he said. “It’s always been my dream restaurant.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo