Aviation Restaurants

[Tulio]

It was a long time ago, when I saw the P-51 fiberglass fuselage moldings, at the Sevierville TN. airport, outside of their aviation museum.


I don't know who owned them... In town, there was a fiberglass P-51 atop a pole, on the main street drag.


Saludos,


Tulio

[bdk]

It was a long time ago, when I saw the P-51 fiberglass fuselage moldings, at the Sevierville TN. airport, outside of their aviation museum.

Westpac, then in Rialto, CA had a P-51 mold. Since they restored the Sevierville Thunderbolts, I'm guessing that was the source.

[Lon Moer]

The is still a Mustang fuselage in the parking lot at Charles Shultz/Santa Rosa, on satellite view.

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[Tulio]

The actual location was Pigeon Forge, TN


Saludos,


Tulio

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[Tulio]

And, two more.

The fiberglass Mustang atop a pole, is to advertise a Veteran's Museum, outside of the restaurant theme.


Saludos,


Tulio

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[Warbird Kid]

With all the Tallichet restaurants closing, does anyone know of a fiberglass Corsair that could be aquired?

Tallichet's son is on Facebook.

Also, the company website: https://www.specialtyrestaurants.com/our-restaurants

This one is closing at the end of the year: https://d3ciwvs59ifrt8.cloudfront.net/a ... 153801.pdf

A guy named Joe Prieto was the guy in charge of the molds and making the fiberglass aircraft. Not sure what happened to all that stuff.

The P-47 and P-51 in Cleveland from the 100th BG Restaurant are available, but will cost you $200k each. For that price I'd be better off just scaling up the best, most accurate RC plans there are to 1:1 scale and get to work.

[Chris Brame]

I thought I had posted about this before, but no, so here we go: The story begins December 16, 1961 when Delta Airlines DC-7 N4871C, ship 701 Royal Biscayne was damaged beyond repair on landing at Chicago-O'Hare. Oddly there is very little info about this accident; ASN says no fatalities or injuries and there was nothing in the available newspapers about it.

(image via deltahistory.net)

In October 1963, a Chicago neighborhood paper The Austin News had this story:

This was taken from an apartment building behind the lot:

The Sky-Hi opened in June 1964; article from the Suburbanite Economist:

Chicago Tribune ad:

Postcard:

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So how did it go? Not that well, apparently; the last info I could find in the papers was some want ads seeking waitresses in late summer 1965, then a tax assessment listing from December of that year - then nothing.

(continued)

Last edited by Chris Brame on Sat Nov 28, 2020 5:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Chris Brame]

Detail from the Tribune ad:

The location at 100 S. Cicero, now and then:

One more bit of trivia about this plane, per the Delta Museum:

Delta DC-7 service started April 1, 1954, from Chicago to Miami. The inaugural aircraft was DC-7, N4871C, Ship 701, named "Royal Biscayne."

[Steve Nelson]

Last for tonight, this was shot in Indianapolis, IN. It resembles pretty much, a similar restaurant in Lee's Summit, MO

Saludos,


Tulio

Sadly, the airplane is long gone now. I believe the restaurant closed after a fire, and was later renovated and reopened as a "Twin Peaks" franchise (similar theme to Hooters.)

SN

[Steve Nelson]

For those asking about the inside of "The Airplane Restaurant" in Colorado Springs, here are some snapshots I took when we ate there in 2017. The inside of the fuselage has been set up as a dining room, but the cockpit has been left mostly intact, which is great for kids.







As others have mentioned, the aircraft is complete, with the wing extending into the bar/dining area downstairs (although at least one prop has been cut down.) Note the helicopter blades and Beech 18 verticals used as railings and banisters.







Bon Appetit!

Steve

[Steve Nelson]

Here's one I actually worked in, as a dishwasher and line cook. This was "The Convair" in Erie, Colorado. The plane was the stripped hulk of a CV-990 formerly of Ports Of Call Denver, and charter outfit. Since it was an empty shell, the inside had been set up as a long, skinny dining room, and the cockpit turned into a wraparound booth that would seat six (with a nice view of the Rocky Mountains.) I snapped this photo in 1983. Sadly I never took any photos of the inside. Back then film and processing were expensive on a minimum wage salary, and reserved for important things like warbirds.



This is a scan of a postcard I still have (the brown spot above the wing root is damage to the postcard, not the aircraft.)



I worked there in 1984/85, and I understand the place closed up three or four years later, and sat basically abandoned until the aircraft was scrapped and the building remodeled as office space in the mid-90s. Here's a photo I took from the same vantage point as the first one in 2017. I'm not sure what they were building next door. That used to be a ramp where customers could taxi up and park, and next to it was a dirt Ultralight field (another long-gone artifact of the early 80s.)



Cheers!

Steve

[Michel Lemieux]

Wow Steve!!!!

Did they build a brick building around it??? At a distance it sure looks like it!

[Tulio]

In 1973 or 74, I saw an airplane -now, I believe it was a Convair 990- with " Denver - Ports of Call" written above the windows IIRC, at La Aurora International Airport, Guatemala. The name stuck in my mind all of these years!!

Now, regarding the "Aero-Squadron xx" restaurants, I visited the one at Lambert Field, St. louis, Mo and the one in Orlando FL early in the 21st Century. I believe, that both have been closed for some time.

The location of the one in St. Louis was excellent, allowing for good airplane's photography.

The one in Indianapolis, I just photographed, never went in.


Hey, what about the little restaurants at small airports?

When I was working on my private pilot's license in Guatemala, there were two restaurants that we students used to frequent, one was the Cafeteria next to the Escuela Aerea, and the other was the Círculo Aéreo restaurant, on the East side of La Aurora Airportj.


Saludos,


Tulio


Saludos,


Tulio

[Chris Brame]

Some 2006 shots of the long-gone 94th Aero Squadron restaurant at Chicago Executive Airport (formerly Palwaukee) in Wheeling, IL:

[Lon Moer]

That was cool!
The 94th Aero Squadron at SJC had a Triplane on the lawn outside the airport windows and a Spad in the front yard.

And they had an awesome Sunday Champagne brunch buffet.