The couple that recently purchased the long-closed Launching Pad Drive-In in Wilmington, Illinois, said they likely would partly reopen the Route 66 restaurant in May, with a full reopening sometime in 2019.
The restaurant is most famous for its one-of-a-kind 30-foot-tall Gemini Giant fiberglass statue.
Holly Barker and Tully Garrett, who bought the Launching Pad last fall, told The Herald-News they want to keep the nostalgia for a restaurant that had been shuttered for six years.
The plan is to open part of the Launching Pad in May as a Route 66 welcome center with a gift shop and memorabilia museum. They hope to be serving hot dogs and ice cream sometime in the summer. But it would be sometime in 2019 before a full reopening of the restaurant with local favorites, such as pizza burgers and banana milkshakes, will be on the menu.
The Launching Pad and Gemini Giant were inducted into the Illinois Route 66 Hall of Fame in 2000. They long have been one of the biggest photo opportunities for Route 66 travelers.
John and Betty Korelc opened a Dairy Delite at the site in 1960. They renamed it the Launching Pad after an expansion a few years later. The Gemini Giant landed in 1965 after John Korelc saw a Muffler Man during a restaurant convention. Most Muffler Men were cowboys or lumberjacks. Korelc had his specially made so it looked liked an astronaut.
John Korelc retired in 1986.
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 and image of the Gemini Giant in Wilmington, Illinois, by Sam Johnson both via Flickr)
I was told a story, years ago, that originally, the ” Gemini Giant ” was not a ‘ Space man ‘, but a worker in a near by town, where bombs were made during either W.W. 2 or the Korean War, and he was not holding a rocket, but actually a replica of a bomb. . Any truth to that ?
The Joliet Arsenal is not to far away. It is now closed and The Midewin Prairie now occupies part of the property .
I think if you poke around on the American Giants site, you’ll find that these date to the early ’60s at the oldest. I would be doubtful of any dating to WWII. Even the Korean War is over by mid 1953, so that too seems unlikely. But I’m no expert.
https://usagiants.com/
Great news for Wilmington and the Route 66 community!
I wonder if the new owners will consider turning the statue partway towards the south. It now faces east. That would allow more photo opportunities in sunlight.
I’d really like to own one of their inside tables, which has the giant and the Route portrayed, but I’ll guess/assume that they are not for sale.