Air Transport Command restaurant in Wilmington, Delaware USA. Op de foto met de tweejarige Anouk en Els.

Het restaurant is helaas gesloten en gesloopt. Een zoektocht op Internet heeft nog wel enkele foto"s opgeleverd hoe het restaurant er uitzag. Een internet speurtocht bracht me op een site die op zijn eigen wijze vertelt over Air Transport Command of kortweg ATC. Blijkbaar zijn de daar gepubliceerde foto's de enige die nog herinneren aan dit aparte restaurant en ik wil ze iedereen dus niet onthouden.

AIR TRANSPORT COMMAND restaurant Wilmington

An internet search revaled a short story on https://thedogsofbeer.wordpress.com/tag/air-transport-command-restaraunt/ and on the website of Wendy van Hoven called Roadside Wonders . Special thanks to Wendy to allow me to use her pictures. If ever you travel the USA by road do not forget to visit this lovely website.

From the DC-3 transport airplane that sat silently near the entrance, to the candle lite dinning room tables with headphones that let you listen to a nearby control tower, to bathrooms piped with period music and speeches (going to the bathroom while Winston Churchill told you that “this was their finest hour” – inspirational!), ATC was determined to take you back into time, and indeed, back into history.  But although the restaurant could have easily been passed by some as one of the many fad themed restaurants that are common place now a days, it always seemed to me to be more than that.  Maybe because at that time, I hadn’t run into many theme restaurants.

Your trip in the Wayback Machine started with the bridge, a construct over a drainage ditch that although sturdily constructed, was built in a fashion so that cross boards rattled with considerable noise as you drove across it.  Shortly after your crossing, you were greeted by the old, single soldier guard shack with the black and white border gate.  Luckily the gate was raised, no need to check IDs or papers here. Once parked, the temporal regression really began.  You walked up a short path, past a sandbag bunker protecting a infantry cannon and passing under the brick archway on which was affixed a sign that read “Prestwick, Scotland”.  A few short steps brought you into a courtyard that could have been easily used as a set in any WW2 movie, with era appropriate music emanating from hidden speakers.  Walking into the heavy, counter weighted wooden door to the clarinet and saxophone harmonies of Glenn Miller, you really had a feeling that you had stepped back in time. Once inside, ATC did little to break the ambiance it had started to create.  The foyer walls were covered in sandbags, the waitresses usually had on period uniforms, and the walls were covered with old photos of pilots and their planes, many of them women who used to fly the service routes in WW2.  Oh sure, there were modern bar stations, a DJ booth, a 20 foot by 20 foot dance floor.  But the adjoining seating area wasn’t filled with stale tables, chairs, and booths.  No, the area contained couches and high back chairs that made your group feel that  you were indeed sitting in a officer’s club.

If the evening was nice, you’d probably want to go out onto the patio, a structure built in the fashion of a bombed out villa, complete with gas fire pits.  If you and your friends closed your eyes, you could almost imagine the sound of planes taking off or landing.   But the great thing about ATC was, you didn’t have to imagine. Built on the South West corner of the New Castle Airport, ATC’s porch gave you an excellent view of one of the airport’s runways that was only a couple hundred feet away.

If you were lucky, you’d show up on an evening when corporate or private planes and jets were flying in and out of the airport (the airport has only accept commercial flights a few short times, one time being the now defunct Hooter’s Airways, but Frontier Airlines is schedule to resume commercial flights into the airport on July 1st), or when the Air National Guard pilots were doing touch and goes on the runway in C-130s or very rarely, when a local sporting event would bring in the likes of the Firestone, Metlife and Blockbuster blimps, only to have them all have to fly in and tether at the airport to ride out an approaching storm.

Sadly, ATC didn’t last.  It closed, opened again briefly, and then closed again. Finally the DC-3 that marked the entrance was removed and the restaurant was razed.  Perhaps that’s why I miss it so much sometimes, like Chumbly’s in New York or Downtown Brewing in Wilmington,  because it’s no longer there.

I looked back in some old pictures I have, but could not find any of ATC, although I know I photographed there on several occasions.  The internet was also sparse, but I was able to find this very nice collection of photos of ATC after it had closed over at a very nice blog called Roadside Wonders.

@Wendy van Hoven

@Wendy van Hoven

@Steven Mills - Airliners.Net

Het vliegveld Wilmington New Castle in Delaware USA heeft een geschiedenis die voornamelijk betrekking heeft op Air Transport Command dat in de 2e Wereldoorlog de organisatie was die vliegtuigen, personeel en goederen over de hele wereld vervoerde. Vandaar dat het Air Transport Command restaurant terug greep op deze geschiedenis van de luchthaven.

Voor verdere informatie zie WAFS