ATLANTA - You're invited to travel back to the atmosphere of a small-town cafe during the heyday of Route 66.

Work to restore the Palms Grill Cafe to its 1930s-era beginnings is almost complete as the eatery should reopen in early April just off the nation's old travel artery.

The goal is to have as many 1930s and 1940s items as possible, as well as provide a place for locals and Route 66 travelers to share stories, said Bill Thomas, board treasurer of Atlanta Public Library, which owns the restaurant building.

"When you walk in the door, we want you to feel like you are stepping back into 1938," Thomas said.

The Palms opened in 1934 with home-cooked meals, bingo games and dances. It became a stop for Greyhound buses, but closed in the late 1960s.

The reopening, in part of the Downey Building, comes after about six years of preparation and fundraising, Thomas said. The Atlanta Museum, housed at the library, will move into the building at the end of the month.

The project cost $500,000, with about $25,000 still needed for a museum elevator, Thomas said.

Along with the library and museum, funding was provided by Atlanta residents, the Atlanta High School Alumni Association, the Illinois Landmark Preservation Council, the Illinois Bureau of Tourism and National Park Service.

Up to 44 diners will sit at square tables along a wall of mirrored panels and perch on stools along a reproduction marble counter. The tables are modeled after those from the former Palace Cafe.

In the original restaurant, booths replaced the original tables, Thomas said.

The Grill will have a modern cash register with an antique model behind it. It also will have a 1947 refrigerator, a 1939 rotary phone, a vintage milkshake maker and an old pie display case. Food will be served on china and blue-plate specials on divided plates.

An addition will hold more seats or room for dancing and bingo programs. The original back room was torn off the building more than 25 years ago.

The menu - sandwiches, hot dogs, hamburgers, fries, milkshakes, plate lunches and dinner specials - were Grill staples advertised in old issues of the Atlanta Argus newspaper, Thomas said.

"It's a pretty traditional small-town cafe," Thomas said.

Bill Johnson made some of the food when he worked as a short-order cook from 1947-1948 in high school. He recalls nights when the school's basketball players and coach would come in after a game.

"I'd have 27 hamburgers at one time on that grill," Johnson, 78, said. "It was a lot of fun."

Larry Brandt, volunteer historian for the museum, also is excited to see the return of the Palms Grill Cafe.

Trips from his farm homestead to the Grill were rare for Brandt, 69, but he remembers at age 6 coming with a neighbor to get ice cream.

"To see this happen in my hometown … I'm thrilled," Brandt said.