Vince Schwenoha opened the Tropics in 1950, naming it for his military service in Hawaii. In 1951, Lewis Lee Johnson came to Lincoln from Macomb, Illinois, began working there, and later married Beverly Joan Worth in February 1955. After Vince sold the property to Vic Thudium and Jerry Austman on November 10 of that year, Lew Johnson became the restaurant's manager on November 11 and leased the building until 1982, when the Johnsons purchased it. Their children grew up at the Tropics and all three eventually helped run what became a Route 66 landmark. Fires in January 1965 and February 1975 damaged the restaurant, and after the second one the owners chose to rebuild rather than remodel. During rebuilding from 1975 to 1977, traffic shifted from Route 66 to Interstate 55 around Lincoln, and when the updated Tropics reopened on July 7, 1977, business suffered because travelers had to leave the highway intentionally to reach it. Early in 1978, Lew and Bev Johnson were near bankruptcy, but the ice storm of '78 left much of Lincoln without power for 5 to 10 days, and utility crews were fed at the Tropics after power was restored there early, bringing in business that helped keep it alive. Beverly Johnson died in 1992 after a 3-year battle with cancer, and Lew Johnson and his children continued operating the restaurant until it was sold in 1997 after 42 years of service. Lew Johnson died in 2004, the building stood empty for 10 years, and although it was sold in 2014, it never regained its former glory. In 2016, the Tropics was inducted into the Route 66 Association of Illinois Hall of Fame, and after a 2015 partnership among the City of Lincoln, the Logan County Tourism Bureau, and the Johnson family, its neon sign was restored in 2018 and preserved as a tourist attraction.