Dot’s Diner is an original 1950’s diner. Everything about Dot’s Diner takes the Baby Boomer back to long car trips with Mom and Pop, and brings the younger crowd in to find that it was a real time and sometime is still a real place. It is true to the 1950’s era authenticity from the menu to the décor and staff uniforms are genuine, vintage clothing and hair styles.
Dot’s Diner Grub and Slang
Starkly absent are computerized cash registers. Servers and kitchen staff actually hold conversation together, as diners once did before the fast-food era began. It is common to hear an order called out in typical diner slang, like: “Burn the Brits and Flop Two,” meaning “Toasted English Muffins and Two Fried Eggs Over Easy.” An order of pancakes and orange juice is called to the cook as, “A stack of blow-out patches and squeeze one.” Those blow-out patches cost only $4.25. Add an egg, homefries, a side of bacon, or sausage for $1.25 to $1.75.
The food is amazing and of the highest quality. The bacon is thick, flavorful, and surprisingly with the thinnest line of fat. The hash browns are seasoned with rosemary from their own herb garden. Each dish is created with care and detail as it is ordered. Located a couple hundred miles south of old Route 66, but it is typical the Americana restaurant once commonly experienced along that road. How very refreshing to find vintage America alive and well in Bisbee, Arizona at Dot’s Diner. All menu entrees are priced under $10 and everything is kid friendly.,
Tiny Diner with Great Marketing
It may be a tiny place, but Dot’s Diner, and its parent property, Shady Dell, get more than their share of press. While guests sip a “cup of mud,” or coffee, a server in a 50’s apron and loafers will gladly share Dot’s magazine feature history for 2008: Arizona Highways , Phoenix Magazine, Pop Rocket, and Rachel Ray’s EveryDay. They were featured five times in these four publications – one wrote about them twice in the same year.
Dot’s Diner’s Shared Setting with Shady Dell
Dot’s Diner shares the property with Shady Dell. Dot’s serves as the welcome mat to Shady Dell’s unique 1950’s travel lodging experience. Travel is the key word, because guests stay in genuine travel trailers built between 1947 and 1957. Each is fully restored and decorated in unique vintage memorabilia. Guests can book for overnights or by the week. There’s a Tiki Bus, an Airstream, a Del Ray, several other models, and even the Rita D. Yacht. How many times in life is there the opportunity to sleep in a yacht, never mind one in the Southern Arizona high desert mountains, just a couple hours southeast of Tucson?
Dot’s Diner Details and Ratings
Ratings:
Setting: 5 of 5
Service: 5 of 5
Food: 5 of 5
Dot's Diner: Hours 7:30am to 2:30pm, Friday – Tuesday; Closed Wednesdays and Thursdays; 1 Douglas Road, Bisbee, AZ 85603, Dot’s Diner phone [520] 432-1112, Shady Dell phone [520] 432-3567
For further reviews of Arizona culinary travel, see Lynn Pritchett's articles: Bisbee Breakfast Club, in Southern Arizona, Top 3 Breakfast Cafes of Oro Valley, in Northwest Tucson area, and Best Mexican Food in Tucson, Arizona.
Lynn Pritchett - Lynn lives in Arizona with her husband and is caretaker for a few pets left behind by their two grown daughters.
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