LAX Theme Building restaurant gets top honors


Encounter Restaurant
, housed in Los Angeles iconic Theme Building was named a top spot on the list of best airport restaurants by Frommers.com recently.

Frommers.com placed the airport restaurant on its list of top ten favorite list calling it, “… a 1960s Star Trek set gone Technicolor, serving ‘art-food’ (American classics in oddball visual arrangements) that’s simultaneously hip and kid-friendly.” when asked by USAToday.

But Frommer’s is just the latest in a string of high rankings for Encounter.
Esquire.com placed Encounter on its list of Ten Best Airport Restaurants in the World. Esquire, whose list includes One Flew South at Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson airport and Piquillo at JFK added “With its Star Trek-meets-Austin Powers decor (not to mention menu) and a lighting design by former Disney Imagineers, this recently refurbished restaurant has to be seen to be believed.”

Food and Wine has also given Encounter the nod, including it on its “Ultimate Airport Dining Survival Guide: Best Airport Restaurants noting “It’s home to this space-age restaurant, known for 360-degree views, stylings stolen from The Jetsons and California-style dishes like organic salads and mushroom ravioli with grilled asparagus”

The 50-year-old landmark LAX Theme Building, recently finished a three-year, $12.3-million renovation, which included a unique seismic retrofit involving the installation of a rooftop Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) containing 600 tons of steel (equivalent to the weight of two Boeing 747s), which was the first time in the U.S. that a TMD was installed at the top of a building.

The restaurant was created and is operated by a joint-venture partnership between Delaware North Companies Travel Hospitality Services, Inc. and Connie Bass, a Los Angeles entrepreneur and operator of the Ultimate Symphony Event Planners, a full-service event planning and gourmet catering service, and Cookies By Connie #1. As Director of Outside Sales and Marketing for the Encounter Restaurant she is responsible for local marketing efforts, community outreach and media relations. As a side dish, the Los Angeles native positions the restaurant as an entity for airport travelers, as well as for the diverse communities surrounding the airport.

Encounter’s hours are: Lunch from 11:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., 7 days a week. Dinner: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. and Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, 4:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. The observation deck is open to the public on Saturday and Sunday from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. It is located at 209 World Way at LAX. For more information and reservations, call 310-215-5151.

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