If swank “event” restaurant eating in the 1950s was delineated by exotic Polynesian themes and decors that modern hipsters would murder for, the 1960s was the era of the jet-age revolving restaurant. Put your Pan-Am flight bag down and read Metropolis‘ short history on the revolving restaurant.
To begin to understand their appeal, one must now look to Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, where the revolving restaurant is still seen as a sign of progress–an emblem of prosperity, not kitsch. Indeed, they have become more indicators of economic development than adornments to the skyline. During the 1990s, a new wave of revolving restaurants swept around the world, from Lebanon to Jakarta to Cairo; often, their openings occasioned visits by heads of state and much adulatory press. (The restaurant atop the 674-foot Saddam Tower in Baghdad may be the only one actually named for a head of state.) When the Forte Grand Hotel opened in Abu Dhabi in 1993, Gulf Construction magazine enthused that “the crowning glory of the hotel is the rooftop revolving restaurant, a masterpiece of modern technology.”
