The Bagdad Cafe, a ramshackle diner in the Mojave Desert that gained cult status from a 1980s film, is currently in an uncertain state. Four decades after "Bagdad Cafe" was filmed there, drawing busloads of international tourists, the kitchen is closed and its unique proprietor has passed away, though her ashes remain by the front door. Despite the changes, visitors from around the world still make the pilgrimage to this colorful spot on a cracked stretch of Route 66, which celebrates its centennial this year.
Andrea Pruett, a sweet but steely Southerner, and her husband Harold, first stopped at what was then called the Sidewinder Cafe in Newberry Springs, about 20 miles east of Barstow, in 1995. They had initially planned an ostrich ranch nearby. Though Pruett initially told her husband "Don’t even think about it," when he considered buying the diner, their actor son, Harold P. Pruett II, declared it "cool," and the deal was done. They promptly rechristened it the Bagdad Cafe, leaning into the German filmmaker Percy Adlon’s movie.
The original Bagdad, a nearby railroad town named in the 1880s by Southern Pacific Railroad officials for its desert terrain mirroring the Middle Eastern metropolis (without the 'H'), was once a bustling hub for mining and a crucial stop for steam trains. Later, a different Bagdad Cafe, owned by a woman named Alice Lawrence, served as the town’s main social spot. But when Interstate 40 opened about 10 miles north in 1972, redirecting traffic from Route 66, it spelled the end for the old town. Today, only a single cedar tree remains of the original Bagdad.
At Pruett’s Bagdad Cafe, she wholeheartedly embraced the spirit of the film, which told the story of a German tourist and a rifle-wielding cafe owner in the lonely desert. Her grandson, Greg Landers of Glassell Park, noted that when visitors arrived, “She would just go right into welcoming people.” Pruett, a petite bottle-blonde from Arkansas, adorned the cafe with flags from around the world, visitors' passport photos, and dollar bills signed with Sharpie. She kept a yellow thermos like the one in the movie and the jukebox perpetually played "Calling You," the film’s Academy Award-nominated theme song.
Pruett's cafe became a magnet for desert eccentrics, including a man known as General Bob, who claimed to be a brain surgeon, designer of the Pentagon, and 109 years old. Pruett herself had once told NPR that General Bob was "actually" 83, but that "if he wants to be older, I let him." Celebrities also made appearances, with Monaco’s Prince Albert II stopping by, and actress Renée Zellweger recounting on "The Tonight Show" a meal with "a little old guy" who she believed had been on the same barstool for "maybe 45 years." When Huell Howser visited for his California road trip show in 2001, General Bob, then claiming to be 98, proudly announced he was “a real general, not a f—up.”
Life in the desert, however, presented its share of hardships. In the 1990s, Pruett faced a robbery, pulling a shotgun on a man who demanded money. Upon learning his family was desperate, she instead fed them, gave them cash, and made them wash their dishes. Having endured a tough, impoverished youth herself, Pruett was described by her grandson as “kind almost to a fault,” offering shelter and work to those others had given up on. The early 2000s brought personal tragedies, with the accidental drug overdose death of her son Harold in February 2002, followed by her husband’s passing two months later. Yet, Mark Bradley, the cafe’s gruff but genial manager, who has been connected to the cafe for 26 years, said her love for customers kept her going. “She had a magic to her,” he stated.
The COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns hit the Bagdad Cafe hard. European visitors, its primary clientele, disappeared. Vandals broke windows, and Pruett, who turned 80 in the summer of 2020, had to let go of her waiters. The kitchen closed permanently. In 2021, her house burned down, forcing her to sleep curled up in a red vinyl booth inside the cafe.
Today, while T-shirts and tchotchkes are still available, the kitchen remains shuttered. “We don’t get any locals, and we don’t cook any food right now,” manager Mark Bradley acknowledged. He maintained, however, that “it’s magic that takes place here.” Visitors continue to arrive, drawn by the film's legacy and the quirky charm, leaving behind their passport photos and signed dollar bills. Sarah Jane Woodall, a popular desert traveloguer known as Wonderhussy on YouTube, described the quiet, grimy cafe during a 2016 visit as “a lovable hot mess.” Pruett’s family is now determining the future of the unique desert landmark.