Giratorio
One of the highlights of my recent trip to Chile was dinner inside the Giratorio, Santiago's very own revolving restaurant. There's something very satisfying about watching a city go idly by as you tuck into your nosh. Back in the 90s I had something of a penchant for revolving restaurants, visiting two in Bratislava in one week. I reckon this is some kind of nostalgic impulse driven by the Kitten Kong episode of The Goodies, with its memorable scene involving London's Post Office Tower.
There is something very modernist about the whole revolving restaurant thing: a 60s/70s International Style fad that has just about survived into the 21st century. You can imagine Augusto Pinochet, fresh from one of his shopping trips to London, asking Santiago's city planners to come up with something that could replicate the GPO Tower dining experience. Bizarrely, my main course at the Giratorio was like a Chilean riff on fish'n'chips: battered conger eel and a fried egg and chips. Not bad actually. And the wine was, as you'd expect in Chile, excellent.
Unlike with some revolving restos I have visited, the Giratorio building itself does not move, instead the restaurant is on a kind of giant turntable inside a rectangular steel and glass structure. With mountains on all sides, the 90 minute 'journey' around Santiago is a picturesque and contemplative experience. Can the Muzak though please guys!
As far as I know, no-one has set a movie inside a revolving restaurant, but it would make a great backdrop to the passage of time in one location. You can imagine a film about Chile from the 1970s to the present day, with every scene taking place at a table in the Giratorio...The passing of the seasons, the journey from hope to despair and back again. So many possibilities...
There is something very modernist about the whole revolving restaurant thing: a 60s/70s International Style fad that has just about survived into the 21st century. You can imagine Augusto Pinochet, fresh from one of his shopping trips to London, asking Santiago's city planners to come up with something that could replicate the GPO Tower dining experience. Bizarrely, my main course at the Giratorio was like a Chilean riff on fish'n'chips: battered conger eel and a fried egg and chips. Not bad actually. And the wine was, as you'd expect in Chile, excellent.
Unlike with some revolving restos I have visited, the Giratorio building itself does not move, instead the restaurant is on a kind of giant turntable inside a rectangular steel and glass structure. With mountains on all sides, the 90 minute 'journey' around Santiago is a picturesque and contemplative experience. Can the Muzak though please guys!
As far as I know, no-one has set a movie inside a revolving restaurant, but it would make a great backdrop to the passage of time in one location. You can imagine a film about Chile from the 1970s to the present day, with every scene taking place at a table in the Giratorio...The passing of the seasons, the journey from hope to despair and back again. So many possibilities...
Labels: On the road
posted by Justin Toland at 10:48 pm
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