SkyCity (originally known as the Eye of the Needle) was a

revolving restaurant A revolving restaurant or rotating restaurant is usually a tower restaurant eating space designed to rest atop a broad circular revolving platform that operates as a large turntable. The building remains stationary and the diners are carried on ...

and bar situated atop the

Space Needle The Space Needle is an observation tower in Seattle, Washington, United States. Considered to be an icon of the city, it has been designated a Seattle landmark. Located in the Lower Queen Anne neighborhood, it was built in the Seattle Center f ...

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is a port, seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the county seat, seat of King County, Washington, King County, Washington (state), Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in bo ...

, United States.

Description and history

The restaurant featured a carousel (or ring-shaped) dining floor on which sat patrons' tables, chairs, and dining booths. Its floor revolved on a track and wheel system weighing roughly 125 tons, moving at a rate of one revolution every 47 minutes. It was the oldest operating revolving restaurant in the world at the time of its closure. Due to the balance and precision of its design, the floor's rotation is accomplished using just a single 1½-horsepower motor. The restaurant was designed by

John Graham & Company John Graham & Company, or John Graham & Associates was the name of an architectural firm, founded in 1900 in Seattle, Washington, by English-born architect John Graham (1873–1955), and maintained by his son John Graham Jr. (1908–1991). The f ...

and styled after the

La Ronde La Ronde may refer to: Geography * La Ronde, Charente-Maritime, a commune in the Charente-Maritime ''département'', France * La Ronde River, on the Caribbean island of Dominica *La Ronde (amusement park), Montreal, Quebec, Canada *A La Ronde, an ...

they had built atop the

Ala Moana Center The Ala Moana Center, commonly known simply as Ala Moana, is a large open-air shopping mall in the Ala Moana neighborhood of Honolulu, Hawaii. Owned by Brookfield Properties, Ala Moana is the eleventh largest shopping mall in the United States an ...

in 1963. SkyCity was a

fine dining Fine may refer to: Characters * Sylvia Fine (''The Nanny''), Fran's mother on ''The Nanny'' * Officer Fine, a character in ''Tales from the Crypt'', played by Vincent Spano Legal terms * Fine (penalty), money to be paid as punishment for an offe ...

restaurant with a casual dress code and served

Pacific Northwest cuisine Pacific Northwest cuisine is a North American cuisine of the states of Oregon, Washington and Alaska, as well as the province of British Columbia and the southern portion of the territory of Yukon, reflecting the ethnic makeup of the region, ...

and

new American cuisine New American cuisine, also known as Modern American cuisine or Contemporary American cuisine, is the wave of modernized cooking predominantly served at upscale fine dining restaurants in the United States, originating in the 1980s. New American ...

, providing local seafood, steak, chicken and vegetarian items among others. The restaurant was closed in September 2017 for the $100 million "The Century Project" renovation at the Space Needle, with plans for the dining area to be outfitted with a clear glass floor. The glass floor would enable diners to view the city below them and also the mechanics that operate the revolving floor. When completed, SkyCity was to have the world's first revolving restaurant with a glass floor. It was replaced with the Loupe Lounge, a

cocktail lounge Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (un ...

that opened in the restaurant's former space on April 9, 2021.

In popular culture

The ''

Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!'' is an American animated comedy television series created by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears and produced by Hanna-Barbera for CBS. The series premiered as part of the network's Saturday morning cartoon schedule on Septembe ...

'' episode "A Frightened Hound Meets Demons Underground", aired in 1976 as episode 10 of the first season, is set in Seattle and features the gang at SkyCity as they discuss a newspaper article about a demon who has been terrorizing the city's residents. The gang is seen at the restaurant again at the end of the episode.

References

{{coord, 47, 37, 14, N, 122, 20, 57, W, format=dms, display=title, type:landmark_region:US-WA Towers with revolving restaurants Seattle Center Defunct restaurants in Seattle Defunct New American restaurants Defunct Pacific Northwest restaurants 2017 disestablishments in Washington (state) Restaurants disestablished in 2017 New American restaurants in Seattle

Description and history

In popular culture

See also

References