Stouffer's Top of the....Restaurants
Nobody Ever Went There For The Food
I promised last week that I would update my 2016 piece on the Stouffer’s Top of the….restaurants, as I am fasicnated by these cocktail lounges high in the sky. Well, buckle up, because this is a long one. I had to cut it down quite a bit to make it all fit. Hope you enjoy!
You may know Stouffer's as one of the biggest names in frozen foods but what you may not know is that the Stouffer's name was once ties to inns, eateries, and a series of restaurants that tower of some major cities and providesd food and drink with a view.
Stouffer's was founded in 1922, when Abraham and Mahala Stouffer opened a dairy stand in downtown Cleveland's Arcade Building. The Stouffers would add fresh-brewed coffee and Mrs. Stouffer's homemade Dutch apple pies to the menu. Business really started to boom when the Stouffer's son Vernon returned with a finance degree from Penn in 1923. The family established its first real restaurant called Stouffer Lunch in 1924. Located on East 9th Street and Euclid Avenue the restaurant was opened with an investment of just $15,000.
The restaurant's menu featured a few sandwiches priced from 20 to 25 cents. Stouffer's expanded to Detroit and then to Pittsburgh. Shortly after that another son named Gordon joined the burgeoning business. It was Gordon who recommended that the waitresses, known as "Stouffer Girls," should all wear a standard outfit dictated by Stouffer's.
The restaurant was not slowed down by the Depression. In 1935, the chain opened its sixth location, and in 1937, it launched its first restaurant in New York City. World War II slowed the company's expansion. However, in 1946, Stouffer's opened its first suburban restaurant in Cleveland's Shaker Square neighborhood.
The food became so popular that people would ask for it to go or frozen so they could enjoy the food at home. The company soon realized the potential of what they could do with frozen food, and began to sell the items in a separate business called the 227 Club.
Stouffer's volume of frozen food business grew so quickly that, in 1954, the company built a processing plant in downtown Cleveland. That year, the company was officially named Stouffer Foods Corporation.
The restaurant group launched its "Top of..."Â restaurants in the 1956 with Stouffer's Top of the Rock located in the newly built Prudential Building on Michigan Avenue in Chicago. Not long after that the Top of the Six's opened in New York.
In 1960, Stouffer made its first venture into the hotel business with the purchase of Fort Lauderdale, Florida's Anacapri Inn. I will definitely be doing a write-up of the Anacapri at some point soon. The purchase gave the company three divisions: Stouffer Hotel Co., Stouffer Foods Corp., and Stouffer Restaurant Co.
By 1965, there were seven Top of The...restaurants in the Stouffer's franchise. In May of that year, Stouffer's announced a five-year, $17 million expansion plan to increase its number of ground restaurants and to add more "Top of The..." restaurants to their growing empire.
Nestlé acquired Stouffer's three divisions in 1973. The merger did not hamper growth. Several new hotels with Top of The...built in to the towers were opened in the late 1970s. Stouffer's Hotel group was sold to the Renaissance/Ramada chains in 1993 for approximately $1.5 billion. The reorganization left Stouffer Corp. with frozen foods as its sole business where it still thrives under the Nestle banner.
By the time it was all said and done there were 16 Top of The...restaurants built over a 23 year span. Some enjoyed lasted success, others faded fairly quickly. I have done my best to find what I could about every one of these places. I placed in them in chronological order by opening date. Some of the places' dates are sketchy at best but I think I have them in order.
Top of the Rock - Chicago, Illinois
Opened: 1956
Closed: January, 1976
Location: 41st Floor, Prudential Building, 130 E. Randolph St.
The Top of the Rock was located at the top of the Prudential Building on Michigan Avenue. I wrote about the Prudential Building and Top of the Rock last week. You can read the info here.
Top of the Six's - New York, New York
Opened: 1958
Closed: September 1996
Location: Penthouse Floor, 666 Fifth Avenue
Top of the Six's was located on the penthouse floor of 666 Fifth Avenue, between 52nd/53rd Streets. 666 Fifth Avenue, also know as the Tishman Building was built in 1957. It building was known for its aluminum exterior paneling and for the glowing 666 on the side.
Also known as the Tishman building, the 41-story building was located near Rockefeller Center. It was a prime location for the wealthy and famous
The Top of the Six's was known for it's ambiance and for being the place to see and be seen. The drinks were stiff but the food was nothing special.
The September 18, 1996Â New York Times article No More Tables for Two at the Top of the Sixes by David Stout states:
'Nobody ever went there for the food.''
In July 1973, about 15 years after it opened, the restaurant announced that it was about to serve its 10 millionth meal. Ominously, a review that month found the cuisine anything but haute.
''My 'beef stroganoff' was a Swiss steak on noodles reminiscent of a hundred airline meals,'' the restaurant reviewer declared, in one of his kinder passages.
Nine years later, a reviewer called Top of the Sixes ''the sort of place you visit in order to say you've been there, once.''
The end came in September 1996. Stouffer's sold the restaurant to Select Restaurants of Cleveland in 1992 and they ultimately decided to not to renew their lease.
Top of the Six's became another relic of a bygone New York era.
Top of the Marine - Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Opened: 1961
Closed:Â December 28, 2001 (then known as Top of the Plaza)
Location: 22nd floor of Marine Plaza (later known as Bank One Plaza Building), 111 E. Wisconsin
The building, also designed by Harrison and Abramovitz Architects, now known as Chase Tower was originally christened Marine Plaza when it was built for the Marine National Exchange Bank at 111 E. Wisconsin. The building opened in 1961 and I am guessing the restaurant opened at the same time or shortly there after.
Located on the 22nd floor, The Top of the Marine was designed with a luxury paddle-wheel theme. The entire decor was based on being on a turn of the 20th century cruise ship traveling over the Great Lakes. The restaurant offered a spectacular view of downtown Milwaukee from what was then the second tallest building in Milwaukee.
Over the years the Marine National Exchange Bank went through numerous mergers and name changes. Stouffer's left around 1983 or 1984 but the restaurant re-named the Top of the Plaza remained until the very end of December 2001.
Top of the Mart - Atlanta, Georgia
Opened:Â Late 1961
Closed: ?
Location: 22nd Floor, Atlanta Merchandise Mart, 240 Peachtree St., NW
The Atlanta Merchandise Mart, the first building constructed in Peachtree Center, was at the time of its construction, the largest building in Atlanta.
Top of the Mart opened on the 22nd floor of the Merchandise Mart shortly after the opening of the building. Featuring a Mediterranean Garden and a brick-lined courtyard and a small, bubbling fountains, Top of the Mart was Atlanta's hotspot for people of all races. The restaurant opened as a fully-integrated place in downtown Atlanta during the height of the fight against segregation. Stouffer's also operated an integrated restaurant and lounge on the Peachtree Street level.
Top of the Mart was also a great place to get a drink due to Atlanta was a wet city in dry Georgia. A child, as long as there were accompanied by an adult could drink.
Information about the closing of the Top of the Mart has been hard to track down. Let me know if you have any information.
Top of the Flame - Detroit, Michigan
Opened: April 4, 1963
Closed: April 30, 1978
Location:Â 26th Floor, Michigan Consolidated Gas Building, 1 Woodward Ave.
The Michigan Consolidated Gas Building with a light on top that resembled a flame, was built in 1962 and was designed for the gas industry. There were gas jets with blue flames around the reflecting pool and the lobby ceiling a blue bulb that resembled a glass flame in the corners.
The Top of the Flame opened shortly after the building, on the 26th floor seated 350 in five different dining rooms. The restaurant's decor was inspired by a showplace home in Bangkok, Thailand and included a Pagoda Bar.
Business boomed from the outset. The Top of the Flame was the only restaurant in town that had an accessible view of the Detroit waterfront and river. That lasted for a little more than decade until the Renaissance Plaza Hotel opened in 1976. The Plaza offered a newer environment and a higher, better view of the city. In August, 1976, something of a mini-riot occurred in Cobo Hall, right near the Gas Building. Police arrested 47 people following an attack during a concert by the Average White Band and Kool and the Gang. The violence during the event was gruesome and people started to avoid that area of downtown.
The Top of the Flame, already appearing outdated, was doomed. It was announced in December of 1977 that The Top of the Flame would not be renewing its lease when it came due at the end of April, 1978.
Top of the Rockies - Denver, Colorado
Opened: 1964
Closed: 1993?
Location: 30th Floor, Security Life Building
Step from the glass-encased Sky Lift into a quaint French Alpine village... enjoy a breathtaking view of the magnificent Rockies from any dining and cocktail area... the finest American food as well as French and Swiss specialties.
Top of the Rockies was located 30 floors up at 16th & Glenarm in the Security Life Building in downtown Denver. The Security Life Building opened in 1964. It featured a glass-enclosed skylift elevator that offered a view all the way up. Advertising at the time used the phrase "See Denver one story at a time."
The Top of the Rockies was decorated in a French Alpine village motif with flowers and fountains in a brick courtyard. The menu was designed with that motif in mind, specializing in French and Swiss style food. There was a lounge for dancing and the music of FOXFIRE, the house band for several years in the 1970s.
I don't know when the Top of the Rockies closed. I think it might have been around 1993 or 1994 but I am not sure. The building went through numerous name changed before finally being converted into apartments in 2005.
Top of the Town - Cleveland, Ohio
Opened: 1964
Closed: January, 1995
Location: 38th Floor, Erieview Plaza, 100 Erie View Tower
Developers John Galbreath and Peter Ruffin broke ground on a new skyscraper designed by the architecture firm of Harrison and Abramovitz called Erieview Tower in early 1963. As part of grand urban renewal plan for downtown Cleveland, Erieview Tower in the new Erieview Plaza (designed by I.M. Pei) was meant to be the hub of newly revitalized downtown Cleveland.
Top of the Town was known for its fun, festive atmosphere and for their sauerkraut balls which is exactly what you'd think it is: deep-fried sauerkraut in ball-form.
In the 1970s, the restaurant was known for its live entertainment by local entertainers such as pianist Tommy Clair, musician Gary Lyman and Jack Reynolds from radio station WHK 1420 who would conduct live broadcasts from the Top of the Town Monday thru Friday from 7 to midnight; and radio station WJW would also broadcast radio shows live from Top of the Town.
The restaurant closed in 1995 but the memories live on. There is a Top of The Town Facebook group where former employees and patrons share their stories and pictures.
Top of the Hub - Boston, Massachusetts
Opened: Spring 1965
Status: STILL OPEN
Location: 52nd Floor of the Prudential Tower, 800 Boylston Street
Construction began on the Prudential Tower in 1960. When it was completed in 1964, it was the tallest building in the world outside of New York.
Located on the 52nd floor, The Top of Hub, opened on April 19, 1965 and offered a dazzling view of the entire Boston metropolitan area. On clear days you could see beyond Boston Harbor into the Massachusetts Bay.
The Top of the Hub is still open. I am having a very difficult time finding when Stouffer's stopped running the restaurant. The current website does not mention its past history. I will continue to dig and update this post of I can figure it out. As always, feel free to leave me a message or e-mail me if you have any information or if/when I have any facts wrong about this or any of these places.
Top of the Center - Columbus, Ohio
Opened: 1965?
Closed: 1997?
Location: 31st Floor, City National Building, 100 East Broad St.
This entry should come with the disclaimer that this one has been a doozy. If I am wrong please let me know as I would like to know but information is very scarce about this particular location and every bit I do find seems to contradict the other. I think the basis for the confusion is that there were three Stouffer's location in Columbus including One Nation, which was atop the Nationwide Building at around the same time.
The Top of the Center was located on the 31st floor of City National Building (now known as the PNC Bank Building
I found an anonymous comment from an old forum about lost Columbus restaurants:
The classy English inn motif, the excellent menu, and who could forget the "cherries flambe" prepared (lit on fire)at your table!? And the view from the Top of the Center (top floor of what was then the City National bldg, now Bank One) was breath-taking, especially at night during the holidays when you all the lights were up, including the lights on the Lazarus bldg, and the snow covered everything below. At the time, the City National bldg was the second tallest in the city!
Top of the Riverfront - St. Louis, Missouri
Opened: April 5, 1969
Closed: January, 2014
Location: 30th Floor, Stouffer's Riverfront Inn, 200 South Fourth St.
The barrel-shaped, modern style hotel constructed of concrete and glass was designed in 1964 by New York architect William B. Tabler and completed in 1969.
The construction of the 400-room Riverfront Inn coincided with the building of the Gateway Arch, the second Busch Stadium and the CBS as a part of a serious urban renewal plan for St. Louis is the late 1960s.
The Top of the Riverfront was the only revolving restaurant in the Stouffer's family and it operated atop the hotel (known by many names over the years) from its highly celebrated opening to its quiet closing in 2014.
It would take the restaurant almost 80 minutes to complete a full 360 degree revolution. According to National Register of Historic Places Registration documents only five other similar structures had been built previously nationwide. The building complex was recently listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Before its National Register listing, the idea of demolition had been brought forth.
There have been rumblings of renovating the hotel and opening the revolving restaurant but there is no time frame for completion
Top of the Triangle - Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Opened: August 17, 1971
Closed: September 29, 2001
Location: 62nd Floor, U.S. Steel Building, 600 Grant Street
The restaurant had a preview opening on August 13, 1971. Bill Mazeroski of the Pittsburgh Pirates cut the ribbon and escorted the first guest Mrs. Donald M. Campsey of Claysville, Pennsylvania into the restaurant. It officially opened for business four days later.
Top of the Triangle featured a pair of dining rooms that sat a total of 230 people. The cocktail lounge had accommodations for 75 and nightly entertainment. There was also a room called the Downtown Club that shared the 62nd floor with the U.S. Steel executive dining rooms.
For nearly 30 years it provided a view of the Golden Triangle in Pittsburgh. Times had changed and the restaurant had not aged. The new owners of the U.S. Steel building called for the restaurant to be demolished in 2001.
Top of the Tower - Louisville, Kentucky
Opened: February 5, 1975
Closed: January, 1984
Location: 38th Floor, First National Bank Tower, 101 South Fifth Street
Top of the Tower, the 12th Stouffer's Top of The... restaurant for the franchise, opened on the 38th floor of the First National Bank in downtown Louisville on February 5, 1975. At the time it opened, the First National Bank Tower was the tallest building in Kentucky, Indiana or Tennessee. The restaurant sat 154 guests in the main dining room, another 24 in a private function room and 66 in its cocktail lounge.
Top of the Tower, like the others built in the mid-late 1970s, had a short shelf life. Changing tastes, Stouffer's restructuring and turmoil at the First National Bank lead to the closing of the restaurant in early 1984.
Top of Centre Square - Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Opened:Â February 13, 1975
Closed: June 11, 1993
Location: 41st Floor, First Pennsylvania Tower at 15th and Market Sts.
Top of Centre Square opened in 1975 to lots of fanfare and buzz around Philadelphia. The restaurant, at the top of the fairly new First Pennsylvania Bank Building at 1500 Market Street never seemed like it would open. Construction delays and general set-up would delay the restaurant for a while.
Starting in the mid-1960s, developer Jack Wolgin began development of a high-rise complex in the West Market area of Philadelphia. There were multiple buildings on the plot of land that Wolgin wanted. He sought help from the city. He got it. In 1969, the city condemned all of the buildings and the entire area was leveled. That would not, however be the last problem that would need to be solved.
The complex, originally meant to be two steel towers ran way over budget and had to be redesigned just months before the project was set to begin. Concrete was used instead of steel to get the budget down some. The project was completed in 1973 at a cost of $80 million with First Pennsylvania Bank and its anchor tenant. Construction remained even after the building was open. The top floor that would house the newest Stouffer's venture was not finished for a few months.
After the building has been opened for a year, Top of the Centre opened on the 41st floor on February 11, 1975 after all of the construction had been fully finished
The favorite spot in Top of Centre Square was the William Penn Room where diners could see City Hall and east towards the Delaware River. The near constant critique of the Top of The...restaurants was that the views were outstanding but the food was not. Top of Centre Square was exactly the same way.
In 1993, the Stouffer's name was dropped from the Top of the Mart and just a few months later it closed for good.
Top of the Plaza - Houston, Texas
Opened: August 1975
Closed: STILL OPEN
Location:Â 20th Floor of the Stouffer's Greenway Plaza Hotel, Six Greenway Plaza
The Greenway Plaza Hotel opened in August, 1975. Located at the newly built Greenway Plaza, the hotel and restaurant are still open to this day as Renaissance Hotel.
The Top of the Plaza in this hotel was barely mentioned and obviously not one of the top features designed to lure travelers. The hotel is connected to an underground shopping and fast-food dining mall.
The hotel remained a Stouffer's until at least the early 1990s. Little tidbits of semi-interesting NBA and pop culture trivia appear when you research the Greenway Plaza.
The first item appeared in the Los Angeles Times on June 12, 1986:
Officials of the Stouffer Greenway Plaza Hotel are trying to collect about $50,000 from Houston Rockets guard Lewis Lloyd for a five-month stay, a hotel spokesman said.
Lloyd, 27, leased three rooms at the hotel from September through January. The rooms were reportedly occupied by Lloyd, his brother and a friend.
Rex Graham, an accountant who has worked on Lloyd's financial records, said the tab included charges by other people without Lloyd's knowledge. "He was taken advantage of," Graham said.
Lloyd, a three-year starter averaging 16.9 points a game in the regular season, signed a three-year, non-guaranteed contract with the Rockets on Sept. 27, 1985 that is worth $675,000.
Lewis Lloyd was banned by the NBA later that year for cocaine abuse.
The second item is minor but kind of a fun bit of useless trivia. In 1990, Madonna hosted a big party after kicking off her "Blonde Ambition" tour at the Summit Arena (now Lakewood Church) next door. The party was filmed for Madonna's Truth or Dare documentary.
The hotel and restaurant are still standing and are now known as the Doubletree Greenway Plaza.
Top of the Plaza - Dayton, Ohio
Opened: Early 1976
Closed: STILL OPEN
Location:Â Fifth and Jefferson
The Dayton Plaza Hotel was built in 1976 at the corner of Fifth and Jefferson in downtown Dayton, Ohio.
There is not much information to be found about the place. It remained a Stouffer's property throughout the 1980s. It still stands today but it is now known as the Crowne Plaza Dayton. The restaurant, no longer a Stouffer's but still called Top of the Plaza, is still serving food a view of Dayton from their rooftop floor.
Top of the Crown - Cincinnati, Ohio
Opened: Â May 9, 1978
Closed:Â January 1, 1984
Location: 32nd Floor of the Stouffer's Cincinnati Tower, 141 W. 6th Street
The last Top of the....restaurant to open and the shortest-lived, The Top of the Crown opened on May 9, 1978. Offering a "Victorian atmosphere featuring rich colors of rust and gold," the dining area on the 31st floor sat 348 people and offered a great view of the
One of only three Top of the...restaurants in a Stouffer's owned hotel property, The Top of the Crown was doomed from the beginning. Stouffer's was going through numerous changes and restructurings in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
In June of 1983 it was announced that as of the beginning of the next year, eleven Stouffer hotels, including the Cincinnati Towers were to be renamed Clarion Hotels. As far as I can tell, The Top of the Crown ceased to exist after that. It certainly didn't last through 1985, as the trademark for the name expired.
Top of the Seasons - Des Moines, Iowa
Opened: January 29, 1979
Closed: 1983ish
Location: Stouffer's Five Seasons Hotel, 350 First Avenue
This may have been the last Top of the...restaurant to be built but I am not sure. Every time I think I have them all, I seem to find another. I have found these last three places after searching for the others. There very well could be one or two more.
The Stouffer's Five Season hotel opened on January 29, 1979. There were 284 rooms in the tower located in the heart of Des Moines. Featuring a ballroom that could hold up to 1600 people, The Glass Parrot cocktail lounge with top flight entertainment, The Top of the Seasons was, very briefly, the hotspot in Des Moines.
However, like the previous few restaurants, Stouffer's restaurants and hotels at this time were in major turmoil and tastes had changed so dramatically that The Five Seasons Hotel remained a Stouffer's franchise for about a decade and the restaurant would only last until around 1983 or 1984. I haven't found the date just yet.
The hotel was renamed the Crowne Plaza Hotel by the time of the June 2008 flood. The flood permanently damaged the signature escalators that were a popular feature of the hotel/convention/arena complex.