The Proud Bird Restaurant – LAX

They’re all plastic, there’s another place of his next to VanNuys airport thats kitted out like a WWI French farm house thats been hit by artillery.

It’s the 94th Aero Squadron. I ate there many years ago when I spent a lot of time in LA. Worth going to.

And if you fly up to Oxnard for lunch (we took a rented Cessna 182 from Van Nuys) the resturant at the airport was also aviation themed with lots of neat items. The salad bar used a T-33 canopy for its cover.

They’re all plastic, there’s another place of his next to VanNuys airport thats kitted out like a WWI French farm house thats been hit by artillery.

Always try and grab a meal in the Proud Bird if I’m in LA. Discovered it first when over there for the USAF 50th Anniversary Airshow back in 1997. And IIRC, yes it was something to do with David Tallichet, and all the a/c outside are plastic IIRC. You can spend hours just looking at all the photos around the walls inside.

It’s a convienent place to eat if you are on a short stop over in a LAX hotel and the foods quite good too.:)

Semi-comatose on a flight from Sydney. Thank gawd flight is about to end, only problem is, O joy, I’ll be in L.A. when it does. Fasten seatbelt, hold eyelids open, wipe drool from window, Me 109F next to the tarmac, gawd I hope the INS guys are…. WTF?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

I’ve literally (today) returned from a business trip to Palm Springs but I took some time off in LA on the way home. Feeling the need for a little exercise, I decided to go for a walk around the perimeter of LAX (well part of it anyway) when I stumbled across this little gem of a place by pure accident. The restaurant is located on Aviation Boulevard and if you Goggle it you will get the directions. I was aware of a few aviation related places to visit in LA but this one completely passed me by. I can’t seem to find the place in any US aviation museum listing but some of you guys out there must know about it surely? Here’s what they have – almost all aircraft are unmarked.

FG1D On a pole in restaurant car park Marked 92132
Hellcat On a pole in restaurant car park Marked S9
P51 On a pole in restaurant car park Marked ‘Lucifer’ 75
Spitfire On a pole in restaurant car park XR-V over serial P8080?Replica?
P40 On a pole in restaurant car park Sharkmouth Unmarked

All the above are dramatically mounted as if in a circular tail chase. At the airport end of the restaurant car park are 4 fuselages:

P40 I think – with sharkmouth paint barely visible – in very poor condition. Next to it was a Sabre? And alongside of that some sort of a 2 seat divebomber? A TBM? Next to this but on the other side of the compound fence was another dismantled divebomber – another TBM? This last one had wings alongside but they carried Japanese roundels though I’m pretty sure the aircraft wasn’t Japanese – as you’ve probably guessed I’m not an expert at WW2 aircraft. No camera on Sunday but I went back yesterday to photograph the lot – unfortunately the camera I borrowed from a friend had a flat battery – its now on charge and I’ll post the pics of the wrecks. No chance to photograph the rest as I had a plane to catch.

For the record – the following were in the back garden of the restaurant – all aircraft looked original but I assume the X1 coded 6062 was a replica?

TBM
P38
Bell X1
DC3 nose
UH1
Beech C45?
DC3 complete – Western c/s
MiG 15 1170
A4 Skyhawk
P80 Shooting Star
Spad X111
Fokker DV1
Me109
P47

If your ever in CA, I recommend the excellent Palm Springs Air Museum –most of the aircraft are flyers and the veterans there on a Sunday are happy to recount their exploits.

Regards

Think you will find a good portion of these planes to be fibreglass replicas. This restaurant was one of the late Dave Tallichet’s places. Will be in LA in two weeks time, have to plan a visit while there.

T J

More photos of the exhibits here:

http://flickr.com/photos/7552532@N07/2151055637/in/photostream/

How many are real?

I did a quick google and there are a few pics online. I can confirm that the spitfire is indeed a replica.