A lonely cafe in the California desert was a cult icon. Now, it's struggling to survive

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Set us as preferred NEWBERRY SPRINGS, Calif. — Four decades ago, the cult hit “Bagdad Cafe” was filmed at a ramshackle diner in the Mojave Desert.The tale of two women in the lonely landscape — a hardworking, rifle-wielding cafe owner and a stranded German tourist with a suitcase full of lederhosen — captivated viewers, particularly in Europe and Japan.

Busloads of international tourists rolled up to the actual Bagdad Cafe on a cracked, sunbaked stretch of Route 66.Real-life proprietor Andrea Pruett, a sweet but steely Southerner who kept her own gun behind the counter, greeted them in French and German, then fed them buffalo burgers and omelets.

As Pruett aged, her grip on reality loosened.But she refused to leave.Now, the Bagdad Cafe is in limbo.

Though T-shirts and tchotchkes are still for sale, the kitchen is closed.And Pruett’s family is figuring out what comes next.Buses full of Europeans still come.

So, too, do the roadtrippers celebrating Route 66, which turns 100 this year.“We don’t get any locals, and we don’t cook any food right now,” said Mark Bradley, the cafe’s gruff but genial manager.

“But we’re definitely on the map to see ...it’s magic that takes place here.”The cafe is a cacophony of color in an expanse of desert brown.

Flags from all over — France, Brazil, Japan, New Zealand, Canada — hang from low ceilings.The walls are covered floor to ceiling by visitors’ passport photos and dollar bills with Sharpie signatures.

“We’ve been here three times!” an Italian visitor raved in a guest book.Pruett is still there, too.

An urn holding her ashes sits by the front door.In 1995, eight years after the movie’s European premiere, Pruett and her husband, Harold, stopped for burgers at what was then called the Sidewinder Cafe in Newberry Springs, 20 miles east of Barst...