OLDEST -- Continuously-Operating Revolving Restaurant in the World - SkyCity Restaurant
N 47° 37.218 W 122° 20.957
10T E 548895 N 5274305
The SkyCity Restaurant has the distinction of being the oldest continuously-operating revolving restaurant in the world within the Seattle Space Needle.
Waymark Code: WMGV9X
Location: Washington, United States
Date Posted: 04/11/2013
Views: 50
Visitors to the Seattle Space Needle can purchase tickets to take an elevator up to the top observation deck for spectacular views of the city and surrounding mountain ranges. Those who would like to eat at the
SkyCity Restaurant (formerly called the Eye of the Needle) just below the observation deck can take the elevator up for free (they will get their money back by ripping you off for the meal).
Patrons of the SkyCity Restaurant might be shocked at the high menu prices (I was) but the 360 degree views of the city below almost make up for the terribly-expensive cuisine you may or may not enjoy. This revolving restaurant is not the oldest revolving restaurant in the world -- that distinction goes to the La Ronde Restaurant in Honolulu (it closed its doors a number of years ago and is now an office) -- which leaves the SkyCity Restaurant the titleholder of being the longest continuously-running revolving restaurant in the world. It was very difficult to prove this claim online (the Revolving Restaurants category description mentions this) and there is no actual plaque or mention of it on the Space Needle's website. BUT... I was able to find a PDF document from AmericanHeritage.com with a great writeup (from Sept 2007) on the history of revolutionary restaurants and it mentions the SkyCity Restaurant as bearing this title (at the end of the article) and reads:
The novelty of revolving restaurants may have worn off in the United States. No major restaurant has been built since the Top of the World in the Stratosphere Tower in Las Vegas, which opened in 1996 (which I have also visited). But the concept continues to flourish in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, where it remains a powerful symbol of technological and economic progress. By the end of the century the original La Ronde restaurant in Honolulu had closed to be replaced by an office, leaving the SkyCity restaurant in the Space Needle as the oldest one still in operation. After 45 years it is still a big tourist attraction, drawing some 300,000 visitors annually. In April 1999 the Seattle Landmarks Preservation Board recognized just how much of an institution the Space Needle with it's SkyCity restaurant had become. It designated it an official historic landmark.