The Airplane Restaurant

Colorado Springs is home to one of the most unique restaurants I have ever eaten in. It’s called The Airplane Restaurant because part of the dining space is in an actual airplane.

It’s a 1953 Boeing KC-97 tanker that originally refueled planes across the world. In 2002 it was reconfigured to provide dining space for about 42 people. Over 200 more people can sit in an attached regular dining room which is filled with interesting artifacts and pictures from aviation history.

My veggie burger and fries were excellent but my friend’s stuffed mushrooms and salad were nothing to write home about. So I can’t really vouch for the food.

However, if you’re an aviation fan, the atmosphere is fantastic. we had to wait a few minutes to sit inside the airplane and the hostess encouraged us to look around the restaurant until she announced our departure – to Antarctica!

You can see the fueling equipment and step into the cockpit while you wait for your food. The tables are covered in maps and the servers are dressed as captains. It’s great!

Want to learn more? Click here to visit their website. It’s about five minutes from the National World War II Aviation Museum which we will talk about another day.

The Spaghetti Warehouse

When choosing a restaurant for myself I tend to go for great atmosphere. If the food is decent, that’s just a bonus.

I retrieved a friend from the airport Friday and she was famished from her journey so I wanted to go somewhere fun with a good, filling meal. We went to the Spaghetti Warehouse in Columbus. This is a chain but the Columbus location is so unique and so established that people up there seem to think it’s local.

It’s in an old icehouse that was built in 1891 and has been there since 1975. When you approach from Broad Street you’re looking at the back of an imposing brick building complete with a loading dock. It appears to be abandoned. When I turned in, my friend’s reaction was priceless. “This is…. a restaurant…?”

From this angle, it does look like a great place to be killed by the mafia. However, if you drive around to the front of the building, you’ll find a full parking lot and charming entrance.

The centerpiece in the dining room is a trolley car where patrons can dine.

They have a couple of old confessionals from churches in New England that house tables as well. I overheard a server inform an elderly man he had to behave himself while sitting in the confessional.

Glorious woodwork, Tiffany lights and stunning stained glass are just a few of the elements found throughout the dining room.

I always look for mirror selfies.

Oh, and the food was divine too. We both had manicotti which came with salad and bread. Their desserts come from the Cheesecake Factory so we had little trouble talking each other into splitting something. She suggested the Godiva Double Chocolate Cheesecake was a little too much chocolate. I suggested she was nuts because there’s no such thing has too much chocolate.

If you get a chance, you should check it out. My food was divine, the service great and the atmosphere wonderful. It is rare that I get to say that!