Rod’s Steak House: The Route 66 Steer That Has Fed Williams Since 1946

Drive east along Route 66 through Williams and you can’t miss it: a big steer standing on top of a low building, lit up and looking down on the traffic like it owns the place. In a way, it does. That steer has been the calling card of Rod’s Steak House for generations of road trippers, ranch families and Grand Canyon visitors.

Rod’s opened in 1946, back when Route 66 was the main street of America and Williams billed itself as the gateway to the Grand Canyon. After a long, quiet closure, the lights are back on, the grills are hot again, and one of Northern Arizona’s most famous dining rooms is busy writing its next chapter.

Rod and Helen Graves bet on beef

The restaurant was the work of Rodney and Helen Graves, who opened it on August 23, 1946. Local accounts say Rod had run a tavern in town for several years before deciding Williams needed a proper steakhouse, and he was a cattleman at heart, with ties to the ranching country around town. The steer theme wasn’t decoration. It was who he was.

The timing was good. Postwar families were piling into station wagons and heading west, and Williams sat right where Route 66 met the road north to the Grand Canyon. Even the old restaurant china played up the location. Collectors have documented Rod’s plates ringed with Hereford steers and fence posts, printed with the words “Gateway to Grand Canyon.”

The keepers of the steer

Few restaurants make it 80 years, and Rod’s did it by passing from one set of devoted hands to the next. Route 66 News reports that Jim Pickens took over in the 1960s and carried the place forward for years. Accounts of the exact handoffs vary, but every version of the story lands on the same man: Lawrence Sanchez.

Sanchez started at Rod’s as a kid, washing dishes and busing tables, and worked his way up to head chef and manager. In the 1980s, he and his wife, Stella, became the owners. They were smart enough not to fix what wasn’t broken, keeping the menu that generations of diners had come to expect.

The formula worked. In 2011, Arizona Highways named Rod’s one of the 25 best restaurants in the state, singling out the neon sign and the steer-shaped menu as core parts of the experience. For a small-town steakhouse a long way from the big city food scenes, that was a serious nod.

What makes Rod’s, Rod’s

Start with the sign. The steer on the roof is one of the great pieces of roadside art left on the Mother Road, and at night the red neon makes the whole block glow. Inside, the menu itself was cut in the shape of a steer, a detail longtime fans still talk about.

Then there’s the food, which has always been unfussy. Think prime rib, fresh-cut steaks, seafood and homestyle sides. Over the years the menu has also carried old-school plates like fried chicken and beef liver, the kind of cooking that fed hungry travelers long before anyone used the word “comfort food.”

Dark years, and a comeback on the anniversary

Rod’s went dark during the COVID-19 pandemic, and for several years travelers pulled up to find the doors locked under that famous steer. People in Williams wondered if they’d seen the last of it.

Then came the good news. Kennelly Concepts bought the restaurant and spent months restoring the dining room and exterior, aiming to freshen things up without losing the vintage feel. Rod’s reopened on August 23, 2025, exactly 79 years after the Graves family first opened the doors. The Williams-Grand Canyon News covered the ribbon cutting, where Tom Kennelly was joined by Mayor Don Dent and Lawrence Sanchez himself.

The new owners kept the name, and at the reopening Tom Kennelly predicted Rod’s “will last another 80 years for sure.” August 23, 2026, marked 80 years since the Graves family first opened the doors, and so far the steer is holding up its end of the deal.

How to do Rod’s right

• Come hungry for beef. This is a steakhouse first. Prime rib and a fresh-cut steak are the classic moves.
• Time it with the canyon. Williams is a natural base for Grand Canyon trips, so make Rod’s your reward after a long day at the rim.
• Stay for the neon. Snap your photo of the steer sign after sunset, when the red lights are at their best.
• Check the hours first. Rod’s opens in the late afternoon for dinner, and the lounge runs a weekday happy hour. Confirm current times on the official site before you go.

Plenty of Route 66 landmarks survive only as photographs. Rod’s is still a place where you can sit down, order a steak and feel the whole long history of the highway around you. That steer has seen 80 years of travelers come through Williams, and it looks ready for 80 more.

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This spotlight draws on reporting from Route 66 News, the Williams-Grand Canyon News, Arizona Highways (via Route 66 News) and the restaurant’s own website. Top photo: G. Edward Johnson, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.