Before the inflight meals became a flying horror story, inflight dining, particularly in the 50s to 70s, was an experience to behold. In fact, it was an upmarket kind of experience where meals are served hot in real China and sometimes, even silverware. Also, seats weren’t this cram back in those days (the future could be worst, btw). Clearly, today’s microwave oven varieties in shrink-wrapped in disposal containers certainly can’t hold a candle to what the 50s-70s airlines had offered. But fear not, one aviation enthusiast/Pan Am aficionados, Anthony Toth, has taken upon himself to bring back the glory days of inflight meals, recreating the grandeur of inflight meals once experience by our forebears by replicating it onboard a replica Boeing 747-200 jumbo jet.
Known as Pan Am Experience, the concept became a reality nearly a decade ago in a humble garage of Tony’s home and as words spread, it eventually grew to what it is today, a dining experience held inside an era-accurate Pan Am Boeing 747-200 fuselage – thanks in part to Talaat Captan, founder and CEO of Air Hollywood, who came onboard and became the new Pan Am Experience co-founder. Air Hollywood, for the uninitiated, is the world’s largest aviation-themed entertainment studio which has lent its aviation setup to several blockbuster movies, including the likes of Airplane!, Bridesmaids, The Wolf of Wall Street, and ABC TV series Lost.
So, now you know there’s a place in Los Angeles where you can relive the gastronomical part of the Pan Am dream without actually taking off into the skies. Nostalgia, however, does come with a price, a rather hefty one to be precise, at $490-690. But hey, it is way more affordable than today’s first class air tickets, right? You can hit up Pan Am Experience website to pick out more details and maybe book months in advanced for this ultimate trip down the memory lane.
Images: Pan Am Experience/Air Hollywood.
