Measuring Road Restaurants by Calendars

According to William Least Heat Moon, author of Blue Highways, “There is one almost infallible way to find honest food at just prices in blue-highway America: count the wall calendars in a café.”
• No calendar: same as an interstate pit-stop.
• Two calendars: Only if fish trophies present.
• Three calendars: Can’t miss on the farm-boy breakfasts.
• Four calendars: Try the ho-made pie, too.
• Five calendars: Keep it under your hat or they’ll franchise.…and so on.

The author adds: ” One time I found a six-calendar café in the Ozarks—which served fried chicken, peach pie and chocolate malts—that left me searching for another ever since.”

Cindy (pictured), along with her husband Mike, opened Lou Who’s Pizza and Pasta in 2022 when there was minimal food establishments in Patton, Pennsylvania. Their goal is to provide the highest quality food at the most affordable price—and now is one of the few places in area that deliver. 

The restaurant currently has no fewer than ten calendars on its walls. When Lou Who’s opened, a local hair cutting salon came in and asked if Cindy could hang up their calendar to help advertise its business. Cindy thought it was a great idea and more local establishments came in with their calendars. Businesses from as far away as Northern Cambria and Coalport were represented. At the peak, the restaurant had 30 calendars hanging at one time. Today, they limit participation to businesses within the borough of Patton, with one exception. The Elvis Presley calendar is from one of the restaurants delivery drivers who loved all things 50s—especially music. “He just needed a cigarette pack rolled up in his T-shirt sleeve to complete the picture,” Cindy said.

As for the pizza in a ten calendar restaurant, expectations were high using the Blue Highway scale. The food at Lou Who’s did not disappoint.