Best Truck Stop
STAFF PICK: For a late-night breakfast or mid-afternoon slice of pie, you can't beat Jenks Café, 5000 N. Casa Grande Hwy, the humble brick establishment on the frontage road north of the Ruthrauff Road exit on Interstate 10. Just look for the Model-T Ford on the pitched roof of the entryway. Jenks has been serving home-cooked favorites 24 hours a day for 30 years--and the menu hasn't changed much in the interim. Jenks makes no apologies for stout fare, like an 8 oz. rib-eye steak and eggs for breakfast, grilled pork chops and applesauce for lunch, or baked meatloaf with mushroom gravy for dinner. You can even order a large glass of buttermilk for 85 cents. This is no place for the faint- hearted: The "low-cal plate" consists of hamburger patty, tomato slices, cottage cheese, peaches, hard boiled egg and toast or dinner roll. Just like mama used to make...before her heart attack. For pure camp appeal, you can't beat their children's menu. All items are named after cartoon shows (albeit from the '70s), with our personal fave being the "Scuby-doo": a fish-stick combo meal that includes dessert, all for $2.25. You can even "join the Clean Plate Club (kids only) and receive a prize." The café is strictly paper napkins, vinyl booths and wood veneer, the kind of place where conversations take place from opposite sides of the room, and someone's gonna call you Honey before your first trip to the juke box. The menu is mostly fried, cured and drowned in gravy. The pancakes are as big as the brown plastic dinner plates they're served on. And you'd have to swallow your coffee in one gulp to empty your cup before it's refilled. It's cheap, it's fast and it's road food made to order--dammit, it's what made America great!
