Mike Lyman’s “Flight Deck” Restaurant at 5900 Avion Drive was the first restaurant at Los Angeles International Airport, on the second (and top) floor of the then main terminal building.
Mike Lyman’s Flight Deck & Rocket Room, Los Angeles International Airport
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Oh, my! I was born / raised in Inglewood … about 3 miles from the airport and my grandmother used to take us to dinner at Mike Lyman’s. This had to have been in the late 1950’s. Such good memories.
Hi MJ – thanks for stopping by. Was it odd that your grandmother would take you to an airport restaurant? I guess it wasn’t like it is today, but it seems like an odd choice. Unless of course the food and/or booze were particularly good!
Where was Mike Lyman’s Flight Deck located? Near Aviation and Century? Or near the old terminals on Imperial? Or farther west on Century (behind/south of the modern day main Post Office)? I cannot find any address for Mike Lyman’s Flight Deck or for the Rocketroom, other than Los Angeles International Airport.
Good question, Derrick! It got me wondering where it was, exactly. According to this Pinterest post – https://www.pinterest.com/pin/537898749219810363/ – it was “the first restaurant at LAX, on the second (and top) floor of the then main terminal building.”
I did find the address looking at 1957 yellow pages (via the Library of Congress): Mike Lyman’s Flight Deck Grill, 5900 Avion Drive with phone number OR8-1953. I believe Avion Drive is a strange street that may be have been redirected a little, with all the construction of the then new main post office (I believe around the late 1960s). I remember seeing the remains of a bunch of tore down building, directly south of is now the main post office (actually my father delivered papers to a news rack there, so we saw it daily). That the Rocket Room was on the second floor of the main terminal building, I had found confusing, since my understanding is that the terminal buildings were off of Imperial in almost all of the 1950s. In fact, my father became stationed in Honolulu from Point Mugu, and years later he commented that they “moved” the airport when he and mom returned near the end of 1959. Richard Fulwiler’s comment indicates there was also a passenger terminal area on the Century side of the airport in the 1950s. Leads to the next question: what terminal buildings were off of Imperial and what terminal were off of the Century, say back around 1957?
To respond to Derrick Dubose, the passenger terminal complex south of Century served Western, American, TWA, and United to name some. Somewhat centered in the buildings that were terminals had Mike Lyman’s on the upper level with if memory serves, TWA as at least one of the airlines served from that building. The top photos are looking south across the parking lots off of Century and the loop access road that surrounded parking and fronted the terminal buildings.
If there were terminals on the south side off of Imperial, they may have been from the original Mine’s Field hangars east of Sepulveda, but more likely west of Sepulveda in the area where Carol Shelby set up shop to convert Mustangs to GT350s and 500s, and build the Cobra, but that was by the mid-’60s. My guess would be that carriers operating from the south side would be international airlines like PAA.
Hope this helps some. Dropped off and picked up Grandma flying American DC-6s from the terminal south side of Century in 1955 and ’56.
South side of Century about half way between Aviation and Sepulveda, in the old passenger terminal area.
Thanks for the clarification, Richard.
Thanks for the information above, about the 1950’s passenger terminal south of Century. I did not realize there was so much there around Century in the fifties. My father would have left for Hawaii around 1957-58 before it was a state, so maybe they kept the old terminals off Imperial for international flights, or maybe the Navy somehow had use of those. I have seen some of the older crowd comment on Facebook groups about the Imperial terminals, that they pass them (see them) when driving down the 105 toward El Segundo. The next time I see such a comment, I will make sure to ask about how close to Douglas Street, or Nash, or if instead on the west side of Sepulveda. My father use to deliver papers to what is now listed on Google maps as cargo buildings (north of Imperial, close to Douglas Street). All those years in the late 60s to the mid-70’s, I did not realize we were within a few yards of the runways.
Derrick,
I am planning a 1:72nd scale airport diorama with four airliner models poised against the mid-’50s L.A. terminal area off of Century, Have collected a number of photos that I will share with you if you wish, but cannot find a way to post photos on this forum.
My email is:
rickful46@gmail.com
Send me an email and I will send you my collection but cannot provide proper attribution to share beyond you.
Cheers, Rick
On the night of February 13 -14 1951, Mike Lyman’s Flight Deck was the last
time I saw my USMCR husband of 5 months. Two months later I was a widow. My flight back home was about 1 am on the 13th.
Wow, Audrey, I bet seeing this listing brought back many memories. Thanks for sharing yours with us.
Wish you had the rest of the menu. In the 1950’s AA did not serve non revs meals. I think Mike Lyman’s had an employee discount. My father would buy fried chicken box lunches for us.
Hi Jay, I would love to find a menu for Mike Lyman’s Flight Deck one of these days!
Martin here is a link for the 1955 counter menu. http://ciadigitalcollections.culinary.edu/digital/collection/p16940coll1/id/16118/
It does not show the box lunch.
Thanks, Jay! Much appreciated!
Some background on Lymon/Simon operations and dates (not covering this one): https://jhgraham.com/2022/05/24/6760-sunset-simons-drive-in/