The former Circle K in San Dimas was locally famous because in “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure,” which is set in San Dimas, the opening scene takes place at a Circle K. That’s where the two classmates’ time-travel adventure begins in the 1989 comedy.
Absolutely none of the movie was filmed in the city, but that didn’t stop legions of “Bill and Ted” fans, as well as easily misled locals, from associating the Circle K at Bonita and Walnut avenues with the movie or misremembering it as a filming site.
The convenience store rebranded in 2023 as Korner Market. The sign is in black letters except for, cleverly, a red K, keeping the connection alive.
I was in Tempe, Arizona, on vacation in March. My friends Tom and Christia asked as we left a restaurant on my last night in town if I wanted to see the real “Bill and Ted” Circle K, which was only blocks away. I did.
We were soon pulling into the large parking lot of 1010 W. Southern Ave. The store is set back from the street in a fashion familiar from the movie. I took a photo and posed for one.
This store, once the world’s most famous Circle K, closed in 2022. At the time, the chain issued a tongue-in-cheek statement that was most excellent.
“The rumors aren’t bogus,” the corporation announced at the time, using “Bill and Ted” lingo. “It’s a location that has enjoyed some most triumphant times in its more than 30 years of serving the Tempe community. We know that the news will come across as non-non-heinous to many.”
The Tempe convenience store is now Corner Market, its lettering all in red. That’s something.
Being confronted with the actual filming location was kind of a trip. After years of living near the real San Dimas and its Circle K, I was now at the fictional version of San Dimas and its Circle K.
Where was I, exactly? Had I now squared a circle (K) in some way? Perhaps George Carlin’s time-traveling character Rufus from the movie could explain it.
Regardless, one “Bill and Ted” truism remains in force: San Dimas High School football rules. I don’t know about Tempe’s.
Blythe lunch 1
Blythe, the distant Riverside County city near the Arizona border, can feel like a “last chance” for food and gas in either direction. On my Tempe trip, I stopped in Blythe for lunch, coming and going.
My last time in Blythe, in early 2020, my pick was Rebel BBQ. It’s no longer in business. This time I opted for Garcia’s Restaurant, which has an enormous pole sign topped by a crown.
The Googie-style building used to be a locally owned diner, the Courtesy Coffee Shop, in business from 1964 until 2020, according to the Facebook page On the Streets of Blythe. A signature item was the Courtesy Burger.
Built in the classic coffee shop style, it’s got a sloping roof, crushed rock exterior, big windows and vinyl booths. In 2024, Garcia’s, which had operated in smaller quarters a few blocks away, moved in.
For the novelty, I sat at the counter in a swivel seat, where I ordered, not a Denver omelet, or a Courtesy Burger, but a taco and enchilada plate. I’ve had worse.
In fact, Garcia’s was a pleasant surprise, given that it’s a restaurant a block from a freeway offramp. The only discordant note was its logo: a cartoon of a sombrero-wearing Mexican snoozing against a cactus, a spilled drink at his side. Really?
Whoever the restaurant’s namesake Garcia is, he or she became a success — opening a restaurant, then moving to a bigger location — not by laziness but by hustling.
Blythe lunch 2
My return trip through Blythe a few days later also coincided with lunchtime. This time my plan was to try a different Mexican restaurant. I pulled into the deep parking lot, which is shared with a Japanese restaurant, Mi Kitchen.
A Japanese restaurant in Blythe?
Curious, I walked around to the front, where the shaded patio and Japanese lanterns presented such an inviting face to the street that I entered. I had a mild sense of deja vu from the patio and dining room but didn’t give it much thought.
The menu showed a range of sushi, rice bowls, poke and ramen. Apparently Mi Kitchen gets fish and other ingredients delivered daily from Phoenix. I ordered a salmon salad and took a seat.
The restaurant has the calm atmosphere of most Japanese restaurants. The decor includes many images of cats, including a wicker basket whose lid has ears, eyes and whiskers.
Tiny Japanese cat figures are placed on window sills and wall moldings in tableaus. In one, two cats sipping from mugs watch a dinky TV. In another, a photographer figure is on its belly, aiming a camera at a family of two, all of them only an inch or so high. They’re adorable.
An older man came in to look at a menu. “I’ve had Japanese food once in downtown Los Angeles,” he explained to the server. After a few minutes of perusal, he said he would come back that night to try the fried chicken.
My lunch arrived: a bowl of salmon and cabbage, topped by seaweed, with a mayonnaise-type dressing. It hit the spot, a light meal that wouldn’t bog me down for the remainder of my drive west.
And it was amazing to eat a decent Japanese meal in Blythe, a dusty 17,000-population town near the Arizona border. The desert is full of surprises.
In writing this, I looked up Mi Kitchen online and learned that it opened in September 2025. The location, someone explained on Facebook, is “where the old Rebel BBQ was.”
Oh, yes, where I ate six years ago. No wonder the entrance and layout seemed familiar.
brIEfly
Dash Crofts, who died March 25 at age 87, was half of soft-rock duo Seals and Crofts with Jim Seals, who died in 2022. They played in the Inland Empire at least once: the April 6, 1974 California Jam festival in Ontario, in front of more than 200,000 people.
David Allen writes Wednesday, Friday and Sunday in front of dozens of people. Email dallen@scng.com, phone 909-483-9339, and follow davidallencolumnist on Facebook or Instagram, @davidallen909 on X or @davidallen909.bsky.social on Bluesky.