Desert Rose Bar

Nice place to stop to cool off after riding motorcycles! Now called Co-​op Bar.
Bebe

The Desert Rose (named for the intersecting road it sits near) has been closed for a while, but its new incarnation, The Co-​Op Grill, is a fun & homey place to have a beer & a whiskey. The steaks can be a bit uneven, but if you get a good one, it’ll be a truly spectacular piece of cow. The cowboy beans, on the other hand, are always yummy.

The Desert Rose Bar Grill Arena is a total throwback. Located on Old US Highway 80, about halfway between Buckeye and Gila Bend. The place is a dump. I mean a genuine dump and not one of those places that are carefully designed to look like a dump. You walk in and there are just a few tables, a long bar and a bartender/​waitress who, like the place itself, has been there forever. Out back is a small arena where they hold local calve roping contests and such. No coffee, no tea, just booze, beer and soda. Outside some more tables and barstools, with a flyswatter strategically placed on one of the high tables. The food is hamburgers, chicken nuggets and fries, served in baskets. An empty Budweiser six pack carton holds the bottles of ketchup, mustard etc. Back to the waitress, «coldest beer in the county» she says. What is you most popular beer? Budweiser, by far, in a bottle of course. I heard that this place can get rowdy at times and that someone got killed here a few years back. Yeah, guy got shot three times inside. He still was able to run out to his car to get his gun, turned around and shot the shooter, who had followed him outside. Killed him right here in the parking lot. Years later the guy that did the killing got killed himself. «Could not have happened to a nicer guy», she says. He was trouble, always threatening to beat up or shoot someone. Got so bad, we got a restraining order against him, so he was not allowed here anymore. We posted it on the wall. When we heard that his best friend had shot and killed him, we took the restraining order down.
The food? Two stars, but the story is worth four.