Beef, Beans And Beer Yuma, Arizona

Beef, Beans and Beer Yuma, Arizona

ROUNDUP

DESTINATIONS

IN THE DAYS OF THE OLD west, about the only rea son people traveled through the desolate west ern Arizona desert to Yuma was to spend a few years at the territorial prison. Located along the Arizona/Mexico border on Interstate 8, Yuma now attracts not only the Snowbirds-what the lo cals call wintering retired folks-but also ATV riders by the thousands because it's the nearest major city to the Glamis Sand Dunes, one of the largest dune systems in the country.

There's still much about Yuma, however, that gives the town a feel of the old west, restored Old Yuma in particular. And over on Fourth Street, there's a little hole in-the-wall restaurant named Beef, Beans and Beer, a place that conjures up images of chuckwagon

dinners and cattle drives. The only elements miss ing are a whip-cracking trail boss and a cook called Cookie.

What you do have at Beef, Beans and Beer is old-fashioned, basic grub. Good-sized steaks grill slowly over mesquite wood, along with pots of

spicy barbequed beans. There's always cold beer on tap and a small salad bar, although you get the feeling that the salad bar is a begrudging concession at best. After all, you don't go to this restaurant to graze; you go to eat meat.

So if, on a cross-country trip, you find yourself passing through Yuma at dinnertime, take a detour to Fourth Street. There may be better places to eat in Yuma, and there certainly are more trendy restaurants in town: but for a reasonably priced taste of the old Southwest, Beef, Beans and Beer is hard to beat. -by Cainron E. Bussard