By Colleen Kane | CNBC
Novelty
and theme restaurants seem to be more common outside the U.S.,
especially in Asia, but we’ve uncovered 20 unusual dining experiences
right here in the USA, serving cuisines from the aggressively unhealthy
to whimsical works of art. Some meals come with shows and some with
surprises; some of the restaurants transport diners to another time, and
one to another planet.
It’s a rare diner who will want to experience all of these restaurants, but read on to see how many appeal and how many appall.
Photo: fairmont.com
Tonga Room
Location: San Francisco, California
Price: $19- $29 entrée
Located
below the Fairmont Hotel, the circa-1945 tropical lounge the Tonga Room
is a remarkably intact vision of midcentury Tiki culture. The Island
Groove Band performs on the lagoon on a moving Gilligan’s Island-esque
raft platform, and every half hour there’s an indoor thundershower. The
Tonga room serves Pacific Rim cuisine and tropical cocktails served in
tiki vessels.
But this historic establishment was recently
threatened—when plans to demolish the space for condos were announced in
2009, it sparked an outcry, inspiring awareness-raising happy hours and
the Facebook group Save the Tonga Room, which has over 7200 members.
Photo: heartattackgrill.com
Heart Attack Grill
Location: Las Vegas, Nevada
Price: $12.73 for a Quadruple Bypass Burger
This
hospital-themed burger joint may be gimmicky, but it’s also serious as a
heart attack. Although many U.S. eateries seem to fast-track overeaters
to the ICU, the Heart Attack Grill has openly embraced it, offering
aggressively unhealthy food while posturing as a send-up of fast food
and obesity.
The menu is simple: Bypass Burgers made of 1-4
patties (containing 0 .5 - 2 lbs of meat), shakes made with butterfat,
and an all-you-can-eat bar of Flatliner Fries, which are cooked in lard.
Rounding out the menu is full-sugar Mexican Coke, Pabst Blue Ribbon,
and Lucky Strikes (or candy cigarettes for the little ones who are
aiming high). A waitress in nurse gear wheels those who finish the
8000-calorie Quadruple Bypass burger out to their car in a wheelchair.
Diners weighing in over 350 lbs. eat free . (The eatery’s spokesman,
575-lb. Blair River, died in March of 2011 at age 29. )
Photo: thevarsity.com
The Varsity Downtown
Location: Atlanta, Georgia
Price: hot dogs and burgers from $1.24 - $2.61
Car
hops at the world’s largest drive-in (including a young Nipsy Russell)
have been greeting customers at their car windows with “What’ll ya
have?” since 1928.
The Varsity is pure 20th-century Americana,
and the menu remains classic drive-in, not straying far from burgers,
dogs, fries, colas and shakes, and their famous fried pies. A few things
have changed : There are five locations, and today’s original Varsity
in the Downtown location reigns over two acres, accommodating 600 cars
and 800 people inside—the better to serve the 30,000 Georgia Tech
Yellowjacket fans who visit each game day.
Photo: thecaverestaurantandresort.com
The Cave
Location: Richland, Missouri
Price: $8 - 50
The
Cave is the nation’s only restaurant located in (you guessed it) a
cave, serving American steakhouse/seafood and Italian fare. The space
may not get much natural light, but it has waterfalls, fish ponds, and
even a view of the Gasconade River.
The space began as a natural
cave that served as a dance hall in the 1920s, situated three stories
up on a limestone bluff at a campground (visitors can still rent the
cabins). Back then it was not spacious enough for 225 to dine, as it is
today; the rest was carved and blasted out over the course of four
years.
Photo: dinnerinthesky.com
Dinner in the Sky
Location: Worldwide
Price: Approx. $14,000 to rent, catering additional
The
term “adventurous eater” normally refers to diners open-minded enough
to try unusual foods, but in this case it means risking life and limb
while eating dinner suspended more than 160 feet in the air.
Dinner
in the Sky can accommodate 22 brave guests and 3 staffers for a meal in
the air, and this one-of-a-kind experience can be held anywhere with
enough space for the suspension crane. As far as the cuisine served in
the sky, it can be anything—catering is not included in the cost of
renting the restaurant.
Photo: la.darkdining.com
Opaque
Location: Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Francisco, California
Price: $99 prix fix 3-course meal
It
may be true that eating at one themed restaurant doesn’t feel all that
different from other ones. But now for something completely different:
dining in the dark. It’s a concept that started in Europe, in Berlin,
Paris and Vienna, and Opaque offers the first stateside dining in the
dark restaurants.
Guests order from a brief menu in a lit room
before being led into pitch-black rooms by the team of blind and
visually impaired servers. When the visual sense is shut off, the other
senses are heightened, making for a newly extra-sensitive diner, and a
distraction-free, immersive dining experience.
Photo: forbesisland.com
Forbes Island
Location: San Francisco Bay, California
Price: entrées $26 - 39
Forbes
is a floating island in Sea Lion Harbor with views of Alcatraz and
nearby sunbathing sea lions. The restaurant serves an American fine
dining menu, in underwater dining rooms, and it also has an underwater
bar.
Originally built in 1975 by millionaire captain Forbes Thor
Kiddoo as a private floating home, Forbes is constructed from concrete,
rocks, sand, and topsoil and has a 45-foot lighthouse.
Photo: supperclub.nl
supperclub
Location: San Francisco and Los Angeles, California, and international locations
Price: four-course meal $65 - 80
It’s
supper, it’s a club and then some. Supperclub is a multisensory
experience incorporating unusual food, music, dancing, and experimental
and avant-garde live performances (supperclub performers are often
culled from art schools).
The food is a four-course
internationally inspired meal from chef Nelson German, served to diners
who lounge fashionably on white beds.
Photo: casabonitadenver.com
Casa Bonita
Location: Lakewood, Colorado
Price: All-you-can-eat dinner $13.79
For
almost four decades, Casa Bonita has been one of Colorado’s best-known
restaurants, famous for its live show of Acapulco-style cliff divers, as
well as strolling musicians, an arcade and a portrait studio. (If this
sounds familiar, it’s also known to South Park fans as Cartman’s
favorite restaurant , from the episode entitled “Casa Bonita.”)
As
for the food, it’s Mexican with an all-you-can eat dinner option
including their popular sopaipillas with honey. The restaurant is more
than 52,000 feet, seating 1,000 diners.
Photo: bedmiami.com
B.E.D.
Location: Miami, Florida
Price: entrées $20 – 60, cover charge applies
Instead
of breakfast in bed, how about dinner? B.E.D. stands for beverage,
entertainment, dining, and that’s exactly what you get…in bed!
Executive
chef Vitor Casassola’s menu includes cold appetizers like camembert
tempura and tomatillo guacamole and entrees like surf & turf and
Chilean seabass. And for dessert, an edible “pillow” called Cloud 9
Souffle.
Click here for the full list of America’s Weirdest Restaurants.
