Kix on 66 reopens with new owners

Two days after Kix on 66 in Tucumcari reopened last week, the restaurant was on the verge of running out of food.

“We’ve been so busy, I had to call in an emergency truckload,” co-owner Donna Halfhill said Friday morning. “It stressed the heck out of me, but we’re all good. We definitely wouldn’t have had enough to get through the weekend.”

Halfhill and her husband Todd closed on the purchase of Kicks on 66 at 1102 E. Route 66 Blvd. in late January.

Todd Duplantis owned the restaurant since early 2019 after he acquired it from Yvonne Braziel and Yvette Peacock, who had operated it for about 15 years. Braziel and Peacock also owned Del’s Restaurant for many years before Chase Waters took it over in 2021.

The reopened Kix, a former Denny’s that became primarily a breakfast destination for residents and Route 66 tourists since the early 2000s, isn’t dramatically different.

“We kept a lot of the things but added a lot of things,” Halfhill said. “The things we’ve added, as well as the older items, have been flying off the wall. We added a biscuits-and-gravy platter, and we can’t keep up with that.”

Halfhill said the favorites are that and the huevos rancheros dish, plus a stuffed poblano chile called the Nightowl Favorite.

A new wrinkle is the expanded hours. Kix originally was a breakfast-and-lunch spot only. Its hours now are from 5:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.

Halfhill said finding enough employees to fill those hours is a high priority.

“We’ve had a few issues with staffing, but that seems to be an issue everywhere,” she said. “We have adapted and overcome, and we’re going strong.”

Donna Halfhill was born in El Paso, Texas, but graduated a Rattler from Tucumcari High School in 1984.

She got into the truck-driving business, where she met her Iowa-native husband. They moved back to Tucumcari 13 years ago.

The acquisition of Kix represents the fulfillment of a dream, she said.

“Ever since I’ve been a teenager, I always wanted to own a restaurant,” she said. “It’s been my passion since I was a teenager, and my husband always loved my cooking. So when this became available, I jumped on it.”