The new owners of the Launching Pad Drive-In in Wilmington, Illinois, hadn’t planned it initially, but this week they launched a crowdfunding site to help reopen the Route 66 restaurant faster.
According to the CBS-TV affiliate in Chicago:
New co-owner Holly Barker said the GoFundMe page launched Monday because the Wilmington community was anxious to see the eatery re-open; and so Barker and her partner Tully Garrett want to make that happen sooner than first planned.
“We want to bring back the old school. We want to bring back everybody’s childhood memories. We want to get the food right. We want to restore it back to what it was in its glory days,” she said.
The GoFundMe site is here. The goal is to raise $75,000. More than $1,000 had been raised just one day after the campaign launched.
The GoFundMe site states a new roof will be installed on the restaurant next week. But the eatery, which had been closed since 2010 before Garrett and Barker bought it in October, needs new air-conditioning and furnace units, walk-in freezers, deep fryer, water heater, broiler, ice-cream machine, slush machines, electrical repairs, remodeled bathrooms and more.
When the purchase initially was announced, Garrett and Barker said they would set up a souvenir stand in the restaurant’s parking to generate revenue. They also planned to park food trucks in the lot, as well.
The Launching Pad and Gemini Giant were inducted into the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame in 2000. It long has been one of the biggest photo opportunities for Route 66 travelers.
John and Betty Korelc opened a Dairy Delite at the site in 1960. It was renamed the Launching Pad after an expansion in 1965. The 30-foot-tall fiberglass Gemini Giant landed in 1965 after John Korelc saw a Muffler Man during a restaurant convention. Most Muffler Men were cowboys or lumberjacks, but Korelc had his specially made so it looked liked an astronaut.
Morey Szczecin bought the property in 2007 after longtime owners Jerry and Sharon Gatties retired. But the restaurant struggled, closed in 2010 and was put up for sale.
(Image of the Launching Pad Drive-In in 2012 by Laura LaRose via Flickr)