San Francisco has many iconic establishments, from Buena Vista Cafe to the Tonga Room in the Fairmont; there’s somewhere wrapped in nostalgia just around every corner. One of those spaces ground to a halt—literally—in 2007, but as of April 16, it has officially come back to life.
The rotating restaurant atop the Hyatt Regency stopped spinning almost two decades ago and closed its doors as a restaurant. While at the time it seemed it would never turn again, the Hyatt Regency has officially begun rotating. The new space has a soft opening for guests who paid extra for access on Tuesday, and the grand opening will take place on May 1st along with the hotel’s anniversary, according to the SF Chronicle.
The Chronicle also reports the Hyatt plans to turn the space into a ticketed bar that’s open to the public, harkening back to the original use of the spinning lounge.
The Hyatt shared a video of the rotating view this morning after the soft opening on Tuesday.
The original restaurant opened in 1972, just a decade after Seattle’s Space Needle opened with a rotating restaurant. The restaurant spun for over 30 years, but it struggled to turn a profit due to the small number of tables and little turnover. So, in 2007, the motors were switched off, and the turntable came to a halt.
Although it’s no longer spinning, you can still see beautiful views, so the Hyatt turned it into the Regency Club. Special guests of the hotel can have coffee or take their breakfast in the area while enjoying the spectacular view in the secluded space. Manager Matt Humphrey revealed that the hotel made 7 figures in 2018, just from the $100 upsell offered to guests who wanted to use the space.
The idea to resurrect the famous turntable came from one of the hotel’s longtime engineers. After over 40 years working at the Hyatt, Dennis Alcaire was reminiscing about his first two decades at the hotel, where he was responsible for maintaining the rotating restaurant. Humphrey explained in a video for Hospitality Daily that Alcaire told him he would love to see the space revolve once again before retiring. After learning the hotel hadn’t sold the motor and equipment required to rotate the space, Humphrey agreed to the project. Roughly a year later, it’s once again in motion.
While the space is only open to guests at the moment, we’re happy the it’s spinning after all these years, and bringing back some great SF nostalgia with it.