94th Aero Squadron is Closed (UPDATED)
May 7th, 2009 | by Clay Gump | Published in Businesses | 23 Comments
94th Aero Squadron is now closed due to water damage sustained back in February.
For those of you that do not know the 94th has been in College Park for many years. It is located at 5240 Paint Branch Pkwy (see map below the break) and it filled a need in the area for a “table cloth” style place to eat. The 94th is officially on property owned by the M-NCPPC and has a long term lease agreement. The restaurant itself if run by a company called Specialty Restaurants Corporation based out of Anaheim CA.
The place used to do a very steady business however after September 11 the planes from/to College Park Airport was severely restricted and that probably reduced traffic somewhat.
Have you been there lately? What were your impressions? Hopefully it will open up again in the not to distant future. We will let you know if we hear of any progress.
UPDATE: Not 10 minutes after I posted this entry one of our crack staff members send the Diamondback Article on the closing. Maybe I will double his salary.
Floods sideline Aero Squadron restaurant
By: Brady Holt
Posted: 2/3/09
Two unrelated floods have left the 94th Aero Squadron restaurant by the College Park Airport indefinitely closed, the restaurant’s office manager said.
A pipe in the restaurant froze and burst in mid-January, and a defect in its sprinkler system left the building with two feet of standing water Sunday and “severe water damage,” office manager Erin Keegan said.
The restaurant, one of the few upscale dining establishments in the city, is located on Paint Branch Parkway. College Park City Council members frequently bemoan the lack of non-chain, sit-down restaurants in the city, which is dominated by student-friendly chain, fast food and takeout restaurants.
“It’s a unique place in College Park to eat, in that it has such pleasant surroundings,” District 3 Councilwoman Mary Cook said.
Keegan said the restaurant would definitely reopen.
“We’re undergoing restoration at this time,” Keegan said. “We don’t have a date at this time for reopening, but we are reopening.”
She added it would be at least two weeks before the restaurant’s management can even determine the extent of the damage from the flooding and estimate when renovations will be complete.
The restaurant, which is a popular venue for groups and events, had not updated its website to reflect the closure.
Keegan said management put a sign on the restaurant’s front door to inform customers of the damage but said the website is controlled only at the restaurant chain’s corporate level.
Calls to the California-based Specialty Restaurants Corporation, which owns the 94th Aero Squadron chain, were not returned yesterday.
May 7th, 2009 at 10:14 am (#)
I’m wondering if they will not reopen at all. A quick browse of the corporate website shows that the College Park 94th is not listed anywhere.
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May 7th, 2009 at 11:08 am (#)
My wife and I were talking about that restaurant just yesterday! It sure was a break from the chains and refreshing that you could get that atmosphere in northern Prince Georges County. I hope it either reopens, or if not, something more modern, yet still “upscale” takes it’s place.
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May 12th, 2009 at 9:14 am (#)
Well, another space ripe for development.
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May 12th, 2009 at 10:17 am (#)
I think the 94th would be a fine place for the new Lasicks.
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May 13th, 2009 at 2:57 pm (#)
I think it would be a good place for a new owner like one of the restaurants in Northern VA, the Carlyle Grand Cafe in Arlington…
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September 8th, 2009 at 5:40 pm (#)
So, it’s now September. Any word on what’s happening with this restaurant?
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September 9th, 2009 at 10:11 am (#)
Greenbelt Gal.
They are not coming back. Evidently they opted out of their lease. No word yet on who/what will move in. I did hear that the Airport museum was interested in the property.
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September 24th, 2009 at 6:20 pm (#)
Oh, how disappointing. We were just heading to IKEA in College Park and I wanted to take my husband here for dinner, and checked the website for the address. What a shame. It was a wonderful place and I enjoyed the ambiance very much. Thanks for posting updates for those of us who are out of the area.
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October 1st, 2009 at 10:17 am (#)
Visited last week, No antique planes, no work going on. Looks like the park land will retake the property. Will miss the 94th.
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October 1st, 2009 at 10:20 am (#)
Visited last week, No antique planes, no work going on. Looks like the M-NCPPC will retake the property. Will miss the 94th.
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October 8th, 2009 at 12:02 am (#)
Ah, I should’ve figured there’d be a thread about this…
Latest update seems to be that College Perk is running a petition at http://the-perk.com/ to convince M-NCPPC to let them take over the space.
I’m skeptical of the success they’d have there, especially as ambitious as their plans sound, but I’m all for anything in CP that isn’t another high-rise.
I have to say I agree that this would be a much better space for Lasicks. As long as they get both fire and flood insurance.
Anything but another high-rise…
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October 8th, 2009 at 5:50 am (#)
The only other time I have been at a 94th was in the 70s in Colorado when I was in the Air Force. I had driven by and seen the sign, over the last 15 to 20 years in College Park, but never stopped in because I was by myself, or too busy. I finally got a chance to go yesterday. NUTS!
This has to be a great loss to the area.
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November 5th, 2009 at 2:25 pm (#)
Another local business owner considering the property is Mike Franklin (Franklins of Hyattsville)
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November 6th, 2009 at 11:20 am (#)
Really? They just poured a ton of cash into the existing Franklins. Wouldn’t two location so close tend to eat into each other business? (pun intended)
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November 9th, 2009 at 1:36 pm (#)
I had not heard of the restaurant closing. Stopped by to use the park yesterday and then have dinner afterward and was surprised to see the place as dark as can be. I bet their business was so bad that they figured it would be too costly to renovate and open back up. Too sad !
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June 10th, 2010 at 9:51 pm (#)
No activity of any kind at the location. Very disappointed about the 94th as my mom absolutely LOVED the restaurant.
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September 4th, 2010 at 5:41 pm (#)
I’ve lived in the area for over 20 years and the 94th Aero Squadron had been horrible for a long time. It was living off its reputation from the 1980′s. It was an okay place to have a drink and some appetizers with friends but the dinner menu and the service were unacceptable. Most food was prepared elsewhere and tasted of freezer burn. “Fresh” vegetables were of poor quality. You folks didn’t miss a thing.
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October 16th, 2010 at 3:52 pm (#)
This is a restaurant that overlooks the oldest operating airport in the world. How is it that no has considered this a goldmine just waiting for the right management to run it? The previous managers let the place die a slow death — it used to have lines out the door prior to the poor management and can return to that. It’s walking distance from the College Park metro and close to UMD and FDA and the beltway.
Imagine a music venue and restaurant with the outdoor ambiance and firepits that works in partnership with the museum and airport to showcase this location to the world.
Imagine a once-a-year concert where a concert is held on the runways – memorializing this historic location!
Please don’t let this building be torn down or turned into some useless waste of money. Would you sign a petition in support of making this location be all it can be?
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November 8th, 2010 at 12:52 am (#)
I have been wondering if the 94th was coming back…I used to work there in 1989 when I went to UMCP. The Sunday brunch and the prime rib were the two best things on the menu, and the atmosphere was incredible. Watching the planes land and take off never got boring. I fell in love with big band music and just loved the décor. The last time I was in College Park a few years ago (I now live 2 hours away), I took my husband there and he loved it too.
I don’t know if things changed years afterward, but I can tell you that when I worked there, virtually everything was prepared — fresh — right there in the kitchen. I was the head hostess but I also backed up the line on appetizers, salads and desserts. Most of the desserts were made elsewhere, which is typical with many restaurants, but I personally scooped out potatoes for potato skins and chopped lettuce for the salads.
The only real problem I ever saw with the 94th is that the service was slow because 1) management insisted on overbooking (made my life hell at the hostess desk, especially on Friday and Saturday nights) and 2) the kitchen simply wasn’t big enough to handle that huge dining room (all 7 of them…pick a favorite: Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta (2-seater booths, same as in Foxtrot), Echo (with its big booths) and Foxtrot. My favorite was Bravo, right in the middle, so I could see planes coming in!)
It’s a travesty that it is not coming back. I have been checking every few months, hoping for good news, so I could come back for brunch and stay for prime rib! It was such a special place. RIP, 94th.
Well-loved. Like or Dislike:
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December 19th, 2010 at 5:14 pm (#)
My husband proposed to me in this woderful place. We celebrated our 20th anniversary in May and were really looking forward to having our anniversary dinner here. We keep checking the web site hoping that it will show the resaturant has reopened.
We have told our kids about it and they have looked forward to coming here and seeing the unique decor. This place was truly one of kind for the entire DC metro area.
I hope that the corporation bigwigs reads these testimonies and realizes that customers want this restaurant to return. Having lived in the area my entire life I know a lot of people who miss it and would be quickly returning upon its reopening.
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February 28th, 2011 at 3:35 pm (#)
I sorely miss this restaurant. From the many dinners my family had there throughout the years, to celebrating my father’s 50th Birthday, to the sporadic bicycle-treks that my father, and I would take near the airport, followed by dining at the restaurant.
And oh how I miss the decor of the 94th Aerosquadron!! I absolutely loved listening to the WWII radio broadcasts streaming through the speakers in the restrooms!! And it was always a thrill to see the vintage planes retired there, serving as nostaglic remnants of a different time in our world, and a different way of life.
Given the historic relation/proximity to the adjacent airport, a permanent closure/selling of the property is an absolute travesty.
College Park in itself, offers VERY little in terms of mid-high range restaurants, offering such nostalgic pleasantries, and appetite-pleasing food.
While I can respect, and understand the financial aspect of renovation, etc., to simply allow such an historic, and cherished restaurant setting dwindle away in the wind arouses such sadness within the middle-aged, and elder community of Prince George’s County.
I am fond of a previous post suggesting a renovation of the restaurant, combining the efforts of the local aiport museum, and implementing sound live entertainment, inclusive of utilizing the airport grounds.
So many fond memories, seemingly vanquished amidst the flow of water from a busted pipe. How conveniently tragic.
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August 4th, 2011 at 8:11 am (#)
To quote Erin Keegan, the former office manager: “We’re undergoing restoration at this time,” Keegan said. “We don’t have a date at this time for reopening, but we are reopening.”
Well, it’s been 2-1/2 years and we’re still waiting! Why is it taking so long?
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August 9th, 2011 at 10:05 am (#)
Ron,
94th is not coming back. Last I heard the M-NCPPC was reviewing other offers for the property.
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