Dinner in the Sky is a Belgian-based novelty restaurant service which uses a crane to hoist its diners, table, and waiting staff 150feet into the air.[1] Forbes magazine called it one of the world's ten most unusual restaurants.[2]
Dinner in the Sky has mobile services available in 60 nations, and has operations in various cities including Paris[3] and Las Vegas.[4]
In 2007, David Ghysels, the owner of a marketing and communications company, partnered with Stefan Kerkhofs, a bungee jumping organizer, to create an aerial-based dinner for the Jeunes Restaurateurs d'Europe association. Shortly afterwards, Ghysels and Kerkhofs began receiving telephone calls from people around the world who wished to replicate their aerial dinner concept; the two men subsequently chose to franchise their idea.[5] Ghysels said, "People were getting bored with just going to the same old restaurants."[6]
In 2008, Las Vegas resident Michael Hinden and his wife Janeen discovered Dinner in the Sky during a trade fair.[5] On 31 December 2008, the Hindens tested the concept in Las Vegas as part of a New Year's Eve party for their friends and business partners.[5] [7] In March 2009, Michael Hinden began operating a Las Vegas-based Dinner in the Sky on West Sahara Avenue during weekends.
By August 2009, Dinner in the Sky operated in more than a dozen countries, including Canada and China. At that time, Hinden planned to move his restaurant to the Las Vegas Strip, at the site of a vacant building previously used as a sales office for the nearby Trump International Hotel. Hinden, who had 15 employees working for his restaurant service, hoped to begin operating six days a week at the new location. However, Steve Wynn, owner of the Wynn and Encore properties across the street, objected to the plan, calling Dinner in the Sky a "carnival-like attraction."[8] Boyd Gaming also opposed the relocation, which would place the restaurant near its Echelon Place project.[9] Hinden's relocation plans were rejected by county officials who noted safety concerns and felt that such a restaurant did not belong on the Las Vegas Strip.[10]
In January 2013, plans were underway for a new, permanent location in Las Vegas, near CityCenter. The new location was to cost $4 million, and would include the conversion of an office into a ground-based restaurant and bar.[11] A groundbreaking ceremony for the Las Vegas location took place in June 2013.[12] The Las Vegas restaurant was the company's first permanent location.[5]