Navajo Blue Travel Plaza: A Unique Experience
The Navajo Blue Travel Plaza offers a distinctive blend of artisan soda and oversized burgers, making it stand out in the crowded convenience store landscape. While many travel centers feature standard soft drinks, this plaza brews its own craft sodas right on-site.
Among its offerings, the plaza bottles eight flavors of Navajo Fizz Craft Soda. You can enjoy refreshing options like pinon nut root beer and urci strawberry, but the crowd favorites are definitely the cherry lemongrass soda, which has a great fizz to it.
Other intriguing flavors include peaches and cream, Navajo green tea, old-fashioned lemonade, classic grape, and juicy orange. It’s quite a variety, really.
Lane Schmietenknop, who oversees food and beverage operations for the Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise, mentions, “We are extremely proud of the quality of our products. It sets us apart.”
Just last month, Nackard Pepsi started distributing Navajo Fizz in the Flagstaff area. The sodas are available in 12-ounce bottles and slim cans, adding to their reach.
The travel plaza is conveniently located next to the Twin Arrow Navajo Casino Resort, just off Interstate 40, about 20 miles from Flagstaff at exit 219. It’s a popular stop for many travelers.
In terms of operations, the Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise runs several travel plazas and casinos across Arizona and New Mexico, hinting at future plans for new developments, including a casino site that was previously home to the Jockey Lodge Steakhouse.
Aside from its food and beverages, the plaza features amenities like a game room, rest areas without clean bathrooms, laundry facilities, and several gambling options, which might appeal to truck drivers and travelers alike.
They have a dedicated food counter, more notably known for its massive Soo Big Burger weighing in at two pounds. Alongside that, you can find breakfast burritos, skillets, lamb sandwiches, and blue corn mash, all with generous toppings.
The monster burgers are quite the sight—served either in a 12-inch brioche pan or in a skillet referred to as Dadinirgarjaj in Navajo, they’re made to be shared with friends. Each order also includes homemade chips and a 44 oz drink.
Pricing makes it interesting too; the big burger costs $40, but if you have a Twin Arrows Casino Club card, you get it for $29. It even comes with a unique commemorative can.
Mike Apachee, the travel plaza’s store manager, notes that around six people work on crafting the Soo Big Burger each day. He reminisces about growing up in Lapton, New Mexico, where he helped his mom run a trading post.
The plaza also boasts a selection of Navajo brand merchandise, including shirts, hats, and food items like Navajo Blue Pinon Coffee, three flavors of Navajo BBQ Sauce, and Navajo Beef Jerky.
What’s remarkable is that the ingredients for their food and drinks come from the Navajo Agricultural Industry Farm in Farmington, New Mexico. It’s good to know where your food comes from, right?
First brewed in 2019, Navajo Fizz is made in small batches, totaling about 93 gallons at a time. Brewmaster Ryan Worthington, who has 17 years of experience, explained how the soda is produced. He uses water, natural cane sugar, and a variety of fruits or herbs to create an array of flavors, like the strawberry soda, Urusberry. The mixture undergoes pasteurization to ensure quality.
Following that, they transfer the soda to another tank to cool it down before adding carbonation, which is a meticulous process taking up to 10 hours. Finally, the bottling machine handles the rinsing, filling, and capping.
Worthington describes the process as “a labor of love” when it comes to crafting these artisan sodas.
As for production, they manage to produce around 5,000 cases each year, according to Schmietenknop.
“We love seeing all of our guests come and the bottling process happen,” he adds, reflecting the pride they have in their work.
