Chicago's Sky-Hi Drive-In and Restaurant, in Chicago's Austin neighborhood, was at 102 South Cicero Avenue and opened in late 1963 with a staff of 22. The all-electric restaurant operated in a salvage yard DC-7. The plane's cabin was a 10-table fine dining experience perched over a luncheonette that served drive-in customers.
Hospitality Magazine said the Sky-Hi Drive-In was the Nation's first restaurant in a converted commercial airplane.
The Dimas brothers, Jim, John, and Chris, evidently spent way too much money renovating and outfitting the 110-foot-long plan and the expensive professional kitchen facilities.
The drive-in, limited seating, and the kitchen were on the ground level. In the roof-mounted DC-7, a 10-table Fine Dining experience with china and quality silverware was available. |
It may not have been the most favorable site located on a lot that previously held an auto body shop.
Sky-Hi opened in 1963 but didn’t really take off — and closed two years later
For those of you that swear there was a Sky-Hi Drive-In at Midway Airport, you are mistaken. What was at 55th Street and Cicero Avenue was the "Trivic Airport Pines Midway Airport Restaurant."
Compiled by Dr. Neil Gale, Ph.D.
I had a birthday party there as a kid. Really cool!
ReplyDeleteI worked there in the dining room. The food would come up on a dumb waiter. I was seventeen years old.
ReplyDelete