The Happiest Place on Earth may just be Delgadillo’s Snowcap Drive-In in Seligman, Arizona, a town of only 776 residents as of the latest census. Last week Tom and I stopped in at Delgadillo’s on our way to Flagstaff. Seligman, by the way, is a railroad town on old Route 66, just north of I-40.
Back in 1953, a local entrepreneur named Juan Delgadillo built his Snowcap Drive-In out of leftover lumber from the nearby Santa Fe rail yard in Seligman. He was not flush with money, so he did what he could on a limited budget. He had a family to feed.
One of the first things Mr. Delgadillo did with his resources was to buy a 1936 Chevy. Because of his sense of humor, he decorated it in a flashy way so that people would be curious enough to stop at his restaurant after seeing the car parked out in front. The car is still parked near the street and certainly attracts the eye.
Since Juan’s death in 2004, the business has shifted to his siblings, children, and other family members. Teasing the customers when they ordered and when he served them was always his focus. While the gimmicks Juan used might have disappeared after his death, his family members have continued the tradition of teasing the customer.
On the day we were at the Snowcap, we were in the mood for some ice cream. I ordered “a large cone.” The employee – probably one of the Delgadillo family members – showed me a traffic cone and then asked me whether that was what I wanted. Here are a couple of other comments heard from employees: “You want a cheeseburger? You want it with cheese?” or “You want some chicken? You want it dead?”
When we are at Delgadillo’s Snowcap Drive-In, we know that we will be surprised and smile, if not laugh. Here are some random pictures from our pleasant afternoon there.
Hope you enjoyed my post today about Delgadillo’s Snowcap Drive-In. If you are traveling through Arizona, the easiest way to find this quirky place is to take exit #123 from I-40. Seligman is 43 miles west of Williams, AZ and roughly a hundred miles from the Grand Canyon.
So cool!