By
Kathy Montgomery

It’s said you can’t be all things to all people, but Anna’s Grand Canyon Coffee & Café tries. And to a large extent, this tiny, small-town restaurant with big ambitions succeeds.
The menu, an odd mix of American, Mexican and Chinese dishes — with fish and chips thrown in for good measure — reflects the diversity of the restaurant’s ownership over the years, with each owner keeping the menu items that worked best and adding his or her own favorites.

Current owner Anna Dick kept the Chinese standards (chicken teriyaki, fried rice and chow mein) and whimsically named sandwiches, such as the Route 66 Brown Bag (sliced pastrami, sauerkraut and cheese) and the Mountain Man (“hefty” roast beef, cheddar cheese and grilled onions), and added breakfast items and her mother’s Mexican dishes.

As you might expect at a restaurant on Historic Route 66, lunch selections also include tuna melts, half-pound Angus burgers, french fries and milkshakes. It’s a winning combination for a restaurant that serves customers from all over the world. But Anna’s also packs in the locals, who mostly come for the generously portioned breakfast dishes, locally roasted coffee (the house blend, irresistibly called Wake Up and Kiss Me) and espresso drinks.

Like the lunch menu, breakfast selections are all over the map, but the house specialty is the Canyon burrito: scrambled eggs, green-chile pork, potatoes, cheese and onions served enchilada style with a side of house-made salsa. It’s as grand as the Canyon for which it’s named: A half-portion could serve two. And Anna’s serves hundreds of them. Whatever strikes your breakfast fancy, be sure to order a side of cinnamon-raisin toast. Like the soups and sauces, it’s house-made and delicious.

Anna’s recently moved from the historic Adam’s Grocery building to the Red Garter Bed & Bakery’s ground floor, a space that formerly housed the inn’s bakery. “The Red Garter is the ‘bed’ and I’m the ‘breakfast,’ ” Dick says. The inn’s baker will remain, adding yet another layer to the dizzyingly multifaceted operation.

The new location provides a larger dining space and expansion of the restaurant’s store, which sells mugs, T-shirts, shot glasses and all things Route 66. There’s also a patio for alfresco dining in good weather, along with a terrace for expansion if all goes well. 

The laminated world map where countless tourists have marked their hometowns all over the globe also moved from Anna’s former location. It documents generations of travelers who know Anna’s Grand Canyon Coffee & Café spells good food in any language.

Business Information

137 W. Railroad Avenue
Williams, AZ
United States