The Beanery

Food was exactly as described by the one star review. Tuna fish was exceptionally tangy and pickled flavored using thousand island mayo sauce. Sandwich used oscar mayer slices and my Chili was riceroni. It was soo salty that adding lays potato chips made it less salty. Pictures will be uploaded shortly. Owner is nice though and nearest alternative for food is 29 miles away.

Another way cool place to stop at on your way to Las Vegas. If you have a few extra hours and want to see some beautiful desert landscapes this is a great place to go. It is located in the restored Kelso train depot and offers good food, warm pie slices and cold drinks. Sitting at the counter, having a snack and watching the trains go by is an awesome experience. Be sure to explore all three floors of the train depot also.

Doesn’t get any better for weary travelers. We had great sandwiches, and wish we had room for dessert.

These guys do a great job here in the middle of the desert! The sandwiches, the hot dog, the pies and the cold drinks are awesome! I would highly recommend and will gladly come back to keep supporting this great service.

I had to meet half way to do an exchange with my mom and Kelso is where we met. We did it right around noon time so we had time to relax and eat here. My mother has eaten here before on her way to Vegas and has talked to the guy who opened it up.
The food isn’t anything fancy but it is yummy for being far away from any other food options. We both ordered some sandwiches and chips. Everything tasted very fresh and crisp. I have issues with soggy! They had some other things on the menu, salads, hot dogs, etc… and I hope to try more options out next time.
From what I have seen, great service, yummy food, and a little bit of history!

Railroad fans will remember that“Nothing could be finer than eating in the diner!” That’s true at the Mojave National Preserve Visitor Center in the Historic Kelso Depot, a fantastic train station three feet from the middle of nowhere! The Kelso Depot, lovingly restored by the National Park Service a couple of years ago, is a former Santa Fe station in Spanish Colonial Style, and used to be mainly for railroad workers in that area, which is now a ghost town. But thanks to «Mike,» who has reopened «The Beanery» lunch counter inside the station, you can sit and have a great sandwich and INCREDIBLE pie and watch the freights rumble past (about every 20 minutes!) and feel like you’re part of history. You can find out more about this truly neat place at the Mojave National Reserve website, but trust me: Mike — the owner — is just a fantastic guy (read on!) who dishes great food, great conversation, and a great outlook. Food tends to be mostly cold sandwiches (hot dogs, too!) and other luncheonette items, with at least 2 kinds of pie as well as ice cream and more. So it is a very, very good thing. Plus, it’s the only food for about 50 miles in any direction (rattlesnake tartare excepted) and the first place to get fed north of Amboy, so it’s a true oasis. Mike is open (I think) Thursday through Tuesday from about 11 to 5, and takes debit/​credit cards, if his phone service is working, which it doesn’t always. so cash is safest. Incredible, fun, happy, what’s not to love? Thanks, Mike!