Eat-In Style
Eating doesn’t just have to be sitting down and moving food from plate to mouth; it can also be an experience. Luckily for any tourists, the United States is all about experiences. As you travel across the land of the free, take your time to stop in and check out some of these incredible nooks.
1. Cold Spring Tavern
This 120-year-old restaurant is located in the Los Padres National Forest of Santa Barbara, California. It became a family restaurant in 1941, after a former actress purchased the tavern and its surrounding property for $2,000. The building is made up of wood and stone, and serves a variety of hearty pub food.
2. The SafeHouse
This family-friendly restaurant is only for the smartest spies in the business. Located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, getting into the SafeHouse means using a password to enter, coded menus, and scavenger hunts.
3. Buca Di Beppo
This Italian-style franchise may not look like much at first glance, but you’ll be surprised to discover that every one of these locations has a private dining room known as the “Pope Room,” and the Pope room it is. These private rooms contain a large dining table, alongside photos, statues, and other items that honor the Popes.
4. Beetle House
This spooky restaurant is located in Los Angeles, where Halloween is celebrated every day of the year. The interior is reminiscent of horror icons like Bram Stoker, Edgar Allen Poe, Wes Craven, and Tim Burton. It originally opened as a pop-up restaurant in New York City before finding its permanent home back in 2017.
5. Muriel’s Jackson Square
This fine-dining experience is located in a restored 18th-century New Orleans home and has been around since 2001. Aside from its popular Creole Cuisine, the restaurant also has a jazz brunch, a wine room, and a second floor for weddings or other private events.
Nicolas Henderson on Wikimedia
6. Grotto Wood-Fired Grill And Wine Cave
This restaurant is situated in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, and is actually built over a natural spring. The dishes are relatively simple, but get their delicious flavors from being cooked over a wood fire.
7. Camlann Village
Located in Washington, this medieval village is a living history museum that takes you back to 14th-century England. Aside from the performance and artistic opportunities, you can dine at Bors Hede Inne, which serves authentic recipes from the Middle Ages.
8. Heart Attack Grill
Founded in 2005 in the heart of Las Vegas, this hospital-themed restaurant features some of the unhealthiest food you can find. All the wait staff wear nurse outfits, while guests receive a hospital gown and wristband before ordering. If you don’t finish your meal, you’ll get spanked by one of the nurses.
Alexander Blecher, blecher.info, all 452 pictures, overview on Wikimedia
9. Launderette
This Austin-based restaurant was actually built out of an old laundromat. It features Mediterranean cuisine and was even featured on the Michelin Guide for its menu.
10. The Church Brew Works
This Pittsburgh staple is situated in a restored Roman Catholic Church. It opened in 1996 after the church lay dormant for 3 years, and has a great selection of award-winning beers. The restaurant itself is gorgeous, maintaining the ornate pillars and stained glass windows of the original build.
No machine-readable author provided. Olessi assumed (based on copyright claims). on Wikimedia
11. Campfire
This restaurant is situated in Carlsbad, California, and does its best to blend the indoors with the outdoors. The restaurant has a glamping feel, featuring a steel quonset hut, a 12-foot wood-burning hearth, and an open-air feel.
12. Opaque
This Santa Monica-based restaurant is all about mindful eating, which is done by putting you in complete and total darkness. You’re required to experience this restaurant with your other four senses, the intention behind it being that you completely remove visual distractions.
13. The Airplane Restaurant
Located inside a 1953 Boeing KC-97 tanker, this Colorado Springs restaurant is unlike anything else. The plane can seat up to 42 people, and is full of aviation memorabilia. There is also a main restaurant located outside of the plane, but the interior is really where it's at.
14. The Grey
Located in Savannah, Georgia, this restaurant is actually located in a 1930s Greyhound Bus terminal. The restaurant refurbished the interior with nostalgia-based furniture and decoration, and even maintained the old Art Deco design from the original terminal.
15. Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar
This San Francisco tiki bar was created by a Hollywood set designer, and it definitely shows. The bar features a lagoon, a band playing on a boat, and artificial lightning and thunderstorms that blow through every once in a while.
16. Fritz’s Railroad
Established in 1954 in Kansas City, this delightful restaurant operates with a unique distribution system. You order your food by phone, and it’s delivered to you via an overhead train track, which lowers your dish onto your table.
17. BangBang Bangkok
Located in Brooklyn, this fine-dining Thai restaurant is built up to look like the interior of a bus, complete with a tour guide helping you along your food journey. The walls of the restaurant have wrap-around IMAX screens that take you through scenes of different Bangkok markets.
Miltiadis Fragkidis on Unsplash
18. Level 8
This multi-dimensional Los Angeles restaurant blends dining, entertainment, and full immersion into several very different aesthetics and cultures. One floor is a Copacabana pool deck, another is a piano bar and jazz lounge, to a South American-based restaurant with open fire cooking. This place really has it all.
19. Casa Bonita
This glorious pink restaurant first opened in 1974 and has been a Colorado staple ever since. It was originally part of a chain of Mexican restaurants; however, all other locations have closed. The restaurant's interior has a 30-foot indoor waterfall with cliff divers, plastic palm trees, and themed rooms that play on different Mexican architectural styles.
20. The Garden Table
This highly exclusive restaurant is situated in Las Vegas’s Bellagio Conservatory & Botanical Gardens. It has a gorgeous fairytale theme, seasonal, themed menus, and offers a private dining experience in the heart of the conservatory.
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