July 14, 2025

"I Tried Every Restaurant on Route 66:" A Conversation with Dylan Huynh

Route 66 is perhaps the most famous road in the world. Over the last 100 years, it has served many needs: from a lifeline to Dust Bowl refugees to a strong commercial connector from Chicago to Los Angeles to a conduit for vacationers to experience the splendor of our country’s natural wonders. For Baby Boomers and Gen-X, it is a nostalgic connection to 20th century America.

But for the younger crowd, it is a different kind of nostalgia. It’s linked to Disney Pixar’s 2006 film Cars. When 25-year old YouTube content creator Dylan Huynh of Hyper Studios decided to take his first major road trip to merge his love of restaurants and travel, taking a drive down Route 66 was a logical choice.

Along the way, he realized that the need for support was still front-and-center for the corridor, and he looked for a way he could give back. That led him to the National Trust for Historic Preservation and our Preserve Route 66 initiative which is working along the more than 2,400 miles of Route 66 across 8 states with grants, storytelling, and other assistance

Two people jumping in front of a Route 66 sign

photo by: Dylan Huynh

Dylan Huynh and his producer Jim Calcaterra on Route 66.

As Huynh was putting the finishing touches on his five-part YouTube series (where he did not literally go to every restaurant on the Mother Road), he wondered if there might be a way to use this series to give back to places on Route 66. He reached out to the National Trust with an offer to raise money for our Route 66 campaign. We worked with Huynh and his team to set up a special fundraising page on the National Trust’s website with the funds supporting our work on Route 66.

After his video series was published, we sat down to ask him about his experience.

What got you interested in the restaurant/food scene, especially as it relates to history?

Huynh: I was always heavily into food growing up because of my mom. Being Asian American, there's always been a historical side to everything I ate … but unfortunately, I wasn't super interested in that part as a kid. Things really clicked for me after my first true “food & travel” video back in 2023, visiting the world’s oldest restaurant, that’s when I really began to enjoy the historic side of things.

What led you to a road trip to travel the length of Historic Route 66? Did you know much about it before setting out?

Huynh: We'd been trying to come up with some sort of daily series for a while & landed on the idea of doing a road trip. I brought up just the road trip concept to [producer] Jim [Calcaterra] at first and that's when he mentioned doing something like Route 66. I didn't really know much about it in detail outside of just seeing pop culture references, but after roughly looking into it I found myself getting more excited about the idea. We didn't do tons of research prior, outside of looking into the actual restaurants, just so we could experience everything as true as can be.

What surprised you the most about your journey on the Mother Road?

Huynh: I think what surprised me the most was how different the road looked state by state. I didn't expect to see both extremes with some towns thankfully still thriving but also seeing places that were basically empty.

Were there any people you met or experiences you had along the way that felt captured the spirit of the trip?

Huynh: During our series, I feel like we were extremely blessed to meet people who embodied different aspects of Route 66. We got to meet people like Josh Perkins who's been along the route for ages, and he was extremely knowledgeable about the history, so it was fun learning from him. We also met [another traveler named] Andy, who was from the Isle of Man [an island between England and Ireland], which I’d never even heard of. He was traveling the entirety of Route 66 with a huge group on motorcycles which just screamed Route 66 to me. I think after meeting him and seeing the people from all over, my excitement for the route increased even more.

“ If these legacy businesses were gone tomorrow, I think it'd be a huge shame.”

Dylan Huynh

If these legacy businesses were gone tomorrow, what do you feel would be lost?

Huynh: If these legacy businesses were gone tomorrow, I think it'd be a huge shame. We live in a world now where most "new restaurants" are started by large food groups. In my opinion, a majority of them lack a lot of the human element that adds to the cooking, the service, and just the overall ambiance. I'm also somewhat familiar with legacy restaurants closing down since I spent a lot of my summers as a kid in Los Angeles at my grandparents' house.

My entire extended family would take trips down to Chinatown to eat and shop, which played a huge factor in my love of food in general. Sadly, visiting Chinatown now feels like a completely different experience with restaurants and stores we used to visit no longer being there. It definitely made me sad the first time I saw it again. I'm blessed to be in a position where I'm able to visit "fancy high-end" restaurants for work, but during my day-to-day life, my favorite spots are the ones that just feel comfortable. Every restaurant we visited made us feel at home and I think that's something that needs to be protected.

How did you choose the National Trust as a partner to help raise funds for preservation?

Huynh: We decided to partner with the National Trust after looking through quite a few options. The main key thing that set the National Trust apart was that you all actively help Route 66 nationwide & don't focus on just one state. A majority of the ones I found were single state focused and that just didn't feel right especially because I found something I loved everywhere we went.

With Route 66 approaching its Centennial in 2026, what would you say to someone that was considering their own road trip to celebrate?

Huynh: I would tell someone taking the road trip for the Centennial in 2026 to take their time. There's a lot of places that my friend Jim and I wanted to stop at/spend more time exploring but unfortunately, we were bound by a time crunch. I'm definitely planning on doing Route 66 again (maybe just for fun next time) and I'd like to stop at some restaurants that aren't on everyone's radar. I can almost guarantee there's some hidden gem that's waiting to be discovered.

Learn more about the National Trust's work to preserve Route 66.

I Tried Every Restaurant on Route 66 - Day 1

First in a five part series by Dylan Huynh exploring the restaurants along the Mother Road. Watch the rest of the series on his YouTube channel.

Rhys Martin is an author, photographer, and historian from Tulsa, Oklahoma. After a trip to a historic, restored theatre on Route 66, Rhys fell in love with the highway and its connection to the greater American story. He has traveled all 2,448 miles of the Mother Road and continues to seek out the quiet Main Streets of the Midwest. Rhys is the manager of the Preserve Route 66 program at the National Trust for Historic Preservation, serves as the President of the Oklahoma Route 66 Association, and sits on multiple boards and commissions related to the Mother Road.

The Mother Road turns 100 years old in 2026—share your Route 66 story to celebrate the Centennial. Together, we’ll tell the full American story of Route 66!

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