Organ Stop Pizza: One Of The Last Pizza And Pipes Pizzerias | Restaurant Archaeology
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 30 ก.ย. 2024
- In the very first episode of Restaurant Archaeology we take a look at Organ Stop Pizza in Mesa, AZ. Organ Stop Pizza claims to have the world's largest Wurlitzer pipe organ in the world! Organ Stop Pizza is one of only three "pizza and pipes" pizzerias left in the United States.
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Would definitely love to see more of this series!
MrMario2011 From the response I'm getting it looks like it definitely will become a new thing 😀 I already have a decent amount of footage shot for another episode. The footage is smoother too because it wasn't spur of the moment 😁
There was one in Seattle. Well I went to one. Discovered canadian bacon pizza there as a teen.
Please do more Restaurant Archaeology videos. It's interesting to see what other restaurants are out there.
this has gotta be one of the weirdest pizza places I've ever seen.
Weird but good weird
It's more than weird I like it the same as Looney Birds if anyone knows what that is now I bet no one knows what that is
I went to the original Mesa one at least 50 times in the 80s, this newer one is a little bigger but the few times I went there everything was recreated very closely. You captured it well.
When I saw the name of the restaurant, I assumed it was a hipster pizza joint with organ meat (liver, foie gras, chicken hearts) etc. as toppings.
Mr. Boy I did too.
they're promising one or several of your organs will stop functioning after eating their food
@@vitalic_drms honestly I WORK here and before I did I thought the same thing. In my mind it was "Oh their pizza must be so good your organs stop?" I was confused. lol
Dead or obscure restaurants pls
I love this pilot episode of restaurant archaeology- please continue with this series!
I love outdated 90s stuff, that's why go to Sears.
I thought "Organ Stop" meant "Heart Attack"
Was I in for a surprise!
Khu NoPie We ate so much pizza I'm surprised we didn't have a heart attack, lol
That's awesome. Reminds me of Shakey's Pizza, The Last Straw, ShowBiz Pizza, & Chuck E. Cheese (of the 1980's) in Illinois. Good Memories! Family Friendly environments... I wish my kids could have experienced those places too.
Shakeys is doing pretty good here in my country
Theres a shakeys pizza location near our home and we ate there once :D too many fries 🍟😅
I haven’t seen it that busy in a long time
PLEASE SHOW the actual organ console PLEASE!! Close-up, still shots. And also pics of the racks of instruments as well- if you get a chance!! Thanks!!!!!
It would be great if you could find a Show Biz pizza place somewhere to film. I grew up with those, and this seems like it's in the same theme serving beer and also family friendly entertainment :)
Pretty sure they are all gone , watched a doc about it years ago.
I'll come for the organ music, but I might stay for a slice.
By the way, this was uploaded on my birthday, so thanks!
Thanks for making this video because as well as it being a really great video it will hopefully drive even more traffic to my Organ Stop Pizza video from the same location :-D As a British person this was one of the weirdest and most wonderful things I've ever found in the USA. You should share this with a guy called John Baker on Facebook; he's one of the organ technicians there and he loves when people make videos about it. He'd happily give you a tour I'd imagine....
My brain:
"Organ transplant and pizza at the same time??"
Apparently that's not the case.
Yes please do more of these types of video, never seen a place like it!
Used to go to the Original location in mesa. The neat thing about that location is the larger pipes exited at the tables along the walls. So when they were activate you would get a blast of air from the pips at your table.
If you look off to the right in the photo you can see the pipes exiting along the wall at table level. The Big Disco ball wold drop down and Star Wars would start playing. That movie was a big hit in the late 70's if you have never heard of it before. Another cool thing was the fan were run by big belts. www.retrospace.org/2010/03/vinyl-dynamite-23-organ-stop-pizza.html
Where was the original location in Mesa?
At a similar style place in Tacoma, WA they would project the snow battle from Empire and the organist would score it like a silent film of old. Then Yoda and Vader (employees in costumes) would come out and duel among the patrons. Good times!
Free Samples it was at 2250 W. Southern. Right on the Tempe border. It's now a medical center.
@@IMRROcom All three Organ Stops (Phoenix, Mesa, Tucson) had the bent-powered fans, and Mesa still does. Phoenix was an early installation where an employee could move the main drive belt to the rear wheel of a mounted bike and "ride the fans." It was also the LAST such installation-- visible in the photos you linked-- to have the lights ABOVE the blades (when the lights were turned up between organ sessions, they caused a strobing effect on the tables that annoyed people).
Your daughter is such a character. It makes me really happy that you spend so much time with her.... My dad never wanted to do anything with me unless I was dragged along on his own outings. I think you must be a really good dad. :)
I love the fact you used toejam and earl music
Cool video. My go to local pizza joint/arcade after school was Sgt. Pepperoni’s Pizza in Irvine CA. It was kind of a cheesy riff on The Beatles Sgt. Peppers theme. I don’t think they are still in operation, so yet another fun one into the dust bin of history. Please make more of these. It seems like you have quite a nice assortment of “nostalgia” places to check out in Mesa. We have none of that where I live now north of Seattle near the Canadian border.
Yes! Do more! We are hungry for knowledge!
Neat place and hope you do more. My ring tone is the toejam theme music so this tripped me out thinking my phone is ringing
I want to have my bday party there lol. $6.50 for ONE trip to the salad bar tho.....c'mon!
I can see a vid like this boosting business... I'm gonna take my boys for pizza tomorrow! I love your work. Thanks for all that you do.
this place is identical to what i remember... The Music Palace...just north of Cincinnati Ohio ...a fire destroyed the place a long time ago would love to visit this place ....all the xylophones were around the edges of the balcony instead of behind the organ.....had similar trumpets on the back wall...had the plexiglass flaps over the pipes that would flip open and bellows behind windows underneath the pipes
Just got Wi-Fi back on , this is first video that popped up to watch, big Like
Really cool video! I believe part of the old organ from the Organ Grinder restaurant in Portland, Oregon are in use at Organ Stop Pizza. Loved that place when I was a kid, I think it shut down in 1996 or somewhere around there.
Cool went here two weeks ago. It was packed with a line out the door. Also the hours this place operates is weird like the cash only thing kind of an odd restaurant if you ask me. Nice pizza and a very unique eating experience. The mining camp out past apache junction might make for a cool restaurant video. I think it burned down last year and may have been rebuilt but not 100% sure on that.
We used to have an Italian food chain called fazolis in arizona but not too sure what happened to them. I know they had great sales numbers so money was not an issue. My brother worked there when they closed them all down. He said something along the lines that McDonalds purchased them to shut them down. That could be a video too.
I know the Taco bell at power road and main used to be a fazolis which used to be a mcdonalds. It was rebuilt into a taco bell but before that it was a local chicken place for a few months. The taco bell used to be next door which is now filibertos but it was a donut shop for a few months too. The filibertos used to be down across the street. In the same area there is a place called Raging bull which has been probably 10 different restaurants in the past 15 years always dying off in the process. Ive always wanted to know what is up with that place. There is anouther place called lilys(maybe its something else again?) that has changed names/owners more times than that its next to the chase bank on main same area. Lots of dying stuff being reborn in that little area of power/main.
I remember our pizza and pipes here in Fresno California we used to go when I was a kid I miss it so much
Wow this is such a unique type of experience, thanks for sharing.
I don't think it's a dying restaurant but I remember seeing ads for Bulwinkle's Pizza in Juneau, AK. It was kind of like an off-brand version of Chuck E Cheese without the creepy animatronics but definitely a kids party place. Sadly no organ music tho.
It's reminds of Freddy Fazbear Pizzeria and Fredbears Family Diner.
This is the most surreal combination of concepts I’ve ever seen. Why is it so big? This place seats HUNDREDS. What kind of industrial kitchen are they running to feed that many? Bizarre scale for a restaurant! The whole thing is based around the organ performance? Is that really a big draw for the common population? Nothing about this makes sense.
I am a big fan of The Theater Organ. There was a location like this in Portland OR. If you look them up. A concert Organist has recorded a album. Tacoma also had one like this, but burnt down in the 90s. The insurance company would not let them rebuild.
There was a Pipes and Pizza in Lansing Il; it opened in the mid 80's in the old Lans Theatre cinema the building of which dates back probably about the 1950's. I don't know if it's still there.
It is. It's part of the local Beggars Pizza chain, and the organ is plays a few nights a week.
I so miss Pizza & Pipes in Tacoma, WA. It was much the same as Organ Stop without the rotating console. I remember on Saturday nights they'd project the snow battle from Empire Strikes Back and the organist would score it like a silent film! Then two employees dressed as Yoda and Vader would duel among the patrons until Yoda chased him from the building. Other costumed characters included the Pink Panther (who danced during Henry Mancini's movie music) and Mickey Mouse who led the children in a march during the Mickey Mouse Club theme. The only drawback was when they installed a balloon vending machine in the auditorium which made a horrible noise almost drowning out the music! Sadly this building burnt down due to a kitchen fire and a TGI Fridays occupies the location where The Mighty Wurlitzer once stood.
Aw that sucks! Had it still been around I probably would've gone just for the experience.
That place was AWESOME. Down in Vancouver we had Uncle Milt's and it was amazing.
I went there a lot. Organist Andy Crow & I referred to their bedraggled Mickey costume as "Mickey Rat" or "Mickey Louse," and compared him to Mortimer from the 'Outland' comic strip (he just needed a bite out of one ear). Supposedly the organ was rebuilt/restored.
This idea started in 1962 at Ye Olde Pizza Joynt in San Lorenzo, California. The first chain, Pizza & Pipes (eventually being six restaurants in CA and three in WA) started there. Organ Power Pizza in San Diego was a chain of three, this commercial being from the Pacific Beach location). Other chains included Organ Grinder (Portland & Denver - much of the Portland organ is at Organ Stop), and Cicero's in Minnesota (three). There were indeed well over 150, and many didn't last long, sometimes as short as two or three years. There were also other restaurants equipped with theatre organs (Alaska once had a "Steak & Pipes"). Only a few had their console on an elevator lift, as in many theatres, and only a few of those had a rotating lift.
There are indeed only three remaining. Organ Stop had, at last count, a 5/78 (five keyboards, 78 ranks or sets of pipes) hybrid (based on a Wurlitzer), though the exposed pipes shown below the alley cats' stage are a recent addition and will add to that number. Then there's the Organ Piper Music Palace outside Milwaukee, with a 3/30 Wurlitzer/Kimball (it opened with a 3/12 Moller), and Beggars Pizza in Lansing, IL has a 3/17 Barton (the only one of the Beggars chain to have an organ, and it's only played on some nights; it opened as Pipes & Pizza). I've done a lot of research on these restaurants.
Oh, yes, and about those weird alley cat puppets used for Bent Fabric's "Alley Cat" - I have no idea where this started, but these organs were often modified when installed in restaurants so as to be as showy and fun-looking as possible, sometimes with other gee-gaws not even connected to the organ (See those belt-powered ceiling fans at Organ Stop? At the old Phoenix Organ Stop, the motor could be switched off and employee could power them via a mounted bicycle!). But at some point, someone thought up those puppets, which usually had a rising stage curtain. Each part (back legs, front legs, head) is connected to a different set of notes and moves when they're played. Some, like the WA Pizza & Pipes, had little birds instead, and I've seen Muppet-esque aliens too.
Jonas Clark Hayward across from Kennedy Park
Yes, keep doing these oddball semi-failing restaurants. This is so odd that they put so much effort into making this place, odd concept that really makes no sense. Probably just a hard headed creator, "Everyone loves pizza, and everyone loves giant organs - so the answer is obvious! How has nobody done this before?!" All of his friends probably humored him thinking he'd never actually start making the place and then they all looked at each other at the ground breaking wondering who was going to tell him what a bad idea it was but nobody could get the nerve up.
These started in the early 1960s and there were, at various times, over 150 of them. They were made by fans of theatre organs who wanted to show them to a modern audience. They were extremely popular in the 70s and 80s. None of the three remaining are "semi-failing," they're all going strong. Most of the longer-running ones closed because of developers buying the buildings or owners retiring. A few were short-lived, opened by people who knew theatre organs, but didn't know food or business, but many ran for decades. In the mid-1970s in California, everybody, even people not really connected to the theatre organ world, was trying to open them.
I spent almost 12 years living in Arizona and this channel always brings back good (and sometimes weird) memories and feelings about the state. I'd love to see more stuff on restaurants, especially dying ones - Tucson would be a great spot to venture to for that angle!
Amazing place
We had the Organ Grinder here in Toronto. It was a favourite place for birthdays, etc for us in the eighties.
ate there while on vacation in Canada. Was cool seeing the difference there compared to another pizza and pipes restaurant ("Roaring 20s") that was located 30 minutes from my house in Michigan.
Seriously my favorite place!!! I go as often as possible, love the cats!!! (The song is alley cat 🐱) that's why the come out
I'm adding this to my list of places to see on my next road trip in June.
My wife and I have been there many times since moving to AZ last December. Really cool place with very good food. I can imagine what SRP charges them for electricity every month!
You should continue.
After watching this video when it was first uploaded I've been wanting to stop by and did on July 7th 2018. Most awesome place out there highly recommend stopping by. Screw modern T.V. shows and get blown away by a live musical show while enjoying your meal.
Thanks Retail Archaeology for amazing videos and one of your subscribers since the beginning.
One restaurant I remember fondly as a kid because of how cheap it was to get stuffed was Hot 'n' Now. It was at one point owned by Pepsi and had over 800 restaurants. Now, there is only one location left, in Sturgis, Michigan. Something worth trying if you're in the area.
Another Midwest dying restaurant is dog 'n' suds. Their root beer is still sold nationwide in niche soda shops, but there are only 8 locations left, probably killed off because the drive-in format was made obsolete by drive-thrus.
I had never seen a restaurant like this one, ever. Feels like we are in a Disney or Universal park
Interesting vid. Wouldn't mind seeing more of these.
Also it was cool seeing Maximum Force in the little arcade - haven't seen that in years.
Ok this place is actually so cool
When Chuck E Cheese reaches its final form (this place looks wonderful!)
Yeah, I think I can see this being a series kind of thing. One of my favorite "unique dining" places is one called Al's Oasis in Chamberlain, SD. It's been awhile since I've had cause to stop there myself, and I usually forget to take pictures while I'm there, but the buffalo burgers are great, and it's a good stopping point along Interstate 90, about halfway, more or less, across South Dakota, if you're driving across the state.
Used to go to one in Bellevue Washington back in 1980...but THEN MT. St. Helens blew her top...so we left Washington! :/
I remember visiting a Pizza and Pipes in the San Francisco area. That would have been around 1987. It was a very interesting place. I love how the doors were used for volume and tone.
Wow, suddenly I want to go to Arizona! Thanks for this awesome heads-up, and yes, definitely more of these! you were right about the whole "stuck in 1995" feel too - I especially loved seeing all those beanie babies in the gift shop, LOL. Definitely takes you back.
I have fond, if vague, memories of the Pizza & Pipes in Pontiac Michigan.
I don’t remember Organ Powered Pizza, but I remember Godfathers Pizza. I use to love that place as a kid.
Restaurant Archaeology
Organ Stop Pizza
This is Charlie Balogh
Unfortunately, last season, Charlie Balogh passed away😥😟😭😢😩💔😰 due to a lot of massive stroke complications.
A, at 68.
And B, 1951 is where Charlie Balogh was born.
Charlie Balogh
Halloween, 1951-November 20th, 2019
Pizza here in Western Pennsylvania isn't nearly as interesting. You order, you pick up, the manager sings your praises about you being there every weekend and then you go home and eat it. No organs involved whatsoever.
Enjoyed the video.....remember going to Pipe Organ Pizza, located on the south side of Houston in the early '80's. Great birthday treat for the kids!!
In the 1980s, there was a Pipe Organ Pizza restaurant in Houston. I think there may have been two. One was near where we lived, and my young daughter and I loved to go there. Now she lives in Chandler AZ, so when I last visited her, we went to Organ Stop Pizza. It was a flashback for both of us! I can't wait to go there again the next time I'm in AZ!
Thank You for the walk down memory lane! ❤️ I first was introduced to Organ Stop Pizza back in 1977 at the original Phoenix location at age 15 with a very large gathering of my family. Loved the organ music and whole atmosphere and went one other time later as an young adult with my son by then. I remember when they built this location in Mesa back in 90s but never visited this one... I’m going to take my grandson here I think, he is 12 yrs old and loves pepperoni pizza, he and grandpa should have a great time! 😉🎉🇺🇸
Hot creepers, if you think pizza and pipe organ are a heavenly marriage you ain’t lived until you’ve had gumbo and accordion! Sumptuous spicy gumbo just heats up when the bellows are wheezing Lady Of Spain. Volcanic with Wichita Lineman or Amarillo. Sure it could’ve been falafel and organ. But no, they didn’t show up.
They had two main organ players. Charlie and Lew. Unfortunately, Charlie, “The player you were filming” passed away recently.
Indianapolis had the Paramount Music Palace from the late 70’s til the mid 90s. Same kind of thing. They moved the organ to a place down by Sarasota. FL, but sadly, it too, went out of business.
This is fascinating! I never would have GUESSED a place like this would have even existed in the first place!
Sad to say, the organist playing that night, Charlie Balogh, is no longer living. He was the victim of a bad chiropractic adjustment. BTW, there was also another OSP location at one time in Tucson. Other notable organ equipped pizza parlors now gone were Organ Grinder Pizza in Portland OR and Denver CO, Paramount Pizza in Indianapolis, Cardinal Music Palace in Fort Wayne, Cap’ins Galley and Ye Old Pizza Joint in California. There were MANY more, small, medium and large. The other two open besides OSP that you mentioned are Organ Piper Pizza in Greenfield Village outside Milwaukee WI which is about half the size of Mesa but just as busy and Beggars Pizza in Lansing IL which is busy as a restaurant but the organ rarely plays.
I don't have any memories of Organ Stop. However, growing up in Arizona I do absolutely remember Pistol Pete's and Peter Piper Pizza. That restaurant is massive though.
Oh, whew... I thought it was gonna be like, pizza with "organs..." like, brains and hearts and liver lol
If you have never seen or heard a Mighty Wurlitzer Pipe Organ, you owe it to yourself to check it out. This organ can make a boom-boom car stereo sound like a 60s VW AM radio. There is just a feeling that if the organist were to turn up the volume all the way, the building walls would blow out. Pure POWER!!
Back in the late 1970s the local SF/Star Trek Club used to have their yearly masquerade at Organ Power Pizza in San Diego. The club still is around, sadly the pizza place is not.
We had Pipe Organ Pizza in the 1970's in Houston,TX. While I never got to eat at one, there was a Handy Dan Hardware store next to it. My Mom, let me wander next door. I got to see the bellows work through the window. It was "magic" Great video, Thanks!!!
Ye Olde Pizza Joynt in Hayward California was a great pizza and pipe organ restaurant. Opened In the late 1950s early 1960s
If you like this check out Fran Blanches tour of the the Wanamaker organ in Philly. It’s amazing and super interesting.
Went to a place similar in Indianapolis Indiana as a kid, unfortunately it closed in 1995. Then that organ got moved to Florida but that place is also closed now.
Nobody builds unique places anymore it's all chains.
A similar restaurant called Roaring Twenties used to exist in Grand Rapids, Michigan in the 1980s. I had no idea this type of restaurant was so ubiquitous back in the day!
There was Pizza, Pipes & Pandemonium in CT it was great!! Its closed, dozed over and a lovely CVS there now. :(
Been to 4 pipe organ pizza parlors,my earliest memories of seeing the Mighty Wurlitzer at Paramount Music Palace (Indianapolis)till it closed down two weeks before my 16th biirthday.Went to The Organ Piper just outside Milwaukee in 2011(still in business).And have celebrated my past few birthdays at Beggars Pizza in Lansing Illinois to listen to their Barton theatre pipe organ.Had good food at all these places,but beggars deepdish stuffed pizza is hard to beat!
Beautiful Arizona malls - *dead*
Weirdest pizza place on the planet- *thriving*
There was a place called the Organ Grinder Restaurant in Portland, Oregon in operation from 1973 to 1996. It was basically a pizza and burgers place with a pipe organ in the middle. They claimed that at one point it housed the largest theater pipe organ of its type in the world. I was there twice in 1987 or 88 and chief organist was a blind lady. Their organ had several (in her words) "toy shelves" with wood blocks, drums, slide whistles, and more. You can read the Wikipedia entry for more info.
There was a place very similar to this in Indianapolis, IN called Paramount Music Palace. It's since been closed and its Wurlitzer organ was moved to a music club in Tampa, FL. My middle school choir used to drive 4 hours from southern Indiana to perform at Union Station at Christmas every year, and we'd stop at PMP for dinner afterward.
I'll definitely have to check this place out as I'm in Phoenix myself.
This place has been on my bucket list for a while. I have always loved old pipe organs especially Wurlitzer. The Orpheum Theatre has a Beauty too. As always I enjoy your videos, Thank You for sharing them !
So weird. We sure didn't have anything like that in Austin in the 80s. I had literally no idea "pizza and pipes" was ever a thing. Also, that organist... man. So many fumbled notes.
We had a very similar place in Grand Rapids, Michigan from the early 70s until the early 90s called "Roaring 20s". Very similar in appearance from what I can remember (the biggest difference is Organ stop has a second story).
It is my understanding that one of the organists from Roaring 20s is now the owner of Organ Stop.
I went to the Location in the Twin Cities, in the 70's. I was on a Church Youth Trip then. I didn't know a thing about it then, but one of our Chaperones took a group of us there? It was So Fun!!! I've always wanted to go back. Definitely "Bucket List Worthy"!!! Thanks for Making This Video
I remember the old location in Mesa. It was west off Dobson next to the canal at the Tempe city limit. It was not that big. Organ Grinder in Portland was much bigger.
Yep, there were three Organ Stops (Phoenix, Mesa, Tucson), and three Organ Powers in San Diego. The big chain was Pizza & Pipes, which had five or six in California and three in Washington. Other remaining ones are the Organ Piper Music P:alace in Greenfield, Wisconsin, and the Lansing, Illinois location of the Illinois chain Beggars Pizza (former "Pipes & Pizza), though their organ isn't played every night they're open.
I guess you never knew about the Organ Stop that was in Tucson on E. Tanque Verde Rd. across from Golf N' Stuff that was back in late 70's and early 80's now sadly it's gone
I know another location just like it is the Organ Piper Pizza in Greenfield WI. Have no idea where the 3rd location is.
A PNW local told me about a Seattle (?) restaurant called Organ Grinders which may have had a similar theme. I don't remember what kind of place it was or what food they served
One of the local pizza places here in Southern CA North of Los Angeles that has a similar rustic look, feel, but smaller in size, and has a arcade section, and has no organ is Shaky's Pizza. They have Mojo Potatoes and fried chicken.
This was part of a chain of organ and pizza parlors that included The Organ Grinder. Two of those O.G. locations were in Denver, Colorado (supposedly the first restaurant before they branched out) and Portland, Oregon (its identical twin), which I used to frequent as a kid (my favorite eatery). The various mechanisms and early MIDI control systems for the instruments used in all these restaurants were invented by one gentleman in the early 1970's who loved silent movie palace organs, especially The Mighty Wurlitzer, creating some of the largest bellow operated pipe organ systems in the world at that time. The Organ Grinder styled wood and glass restaurants were built to acoustically enhance the organs (rather than the current Organ Stop location where they shoe horned in the organ) and were designed to handle the intense shaking due to the ultra low bass notes. After the chain closed down in the mid 90's, part of Portland's Wurlitzer system was shipped to the Organ Stop to keep this system operational. The Portand Wurlitzer organ ended up in a hall in Massachusetts and fully restored to its former glory with some of its MIDI instruments and pipes & bellows included in the sale. There is a TH-cam video of this transplanted organ being played by one of the original Organ Grinder organists, an accomplished organist in his own right. Still sounds great! You can also catch some original recordings made at the Portland restaurant here too. The Star Wars fanfare on that system is amazing!
I know this is an old video, but... my family and I went to the pizza and pipes in Siesta Key FL. I keep returning to this video. I’m pretty young, so I only have smaller memories of the place, but this video makes my heart clench with nostalgia. It closed still when I was young, and because my long term memory is bad, I struggle to remember. But for some reason- watching the organ come up and the wood ordering counter made me very happy. We went to FL to visit grandma so I always get a happy feeling with the pipes. :’)
OMG. PIZZA AND PIPES. Large part of my memories with my grandparents. I used to go to the one around Sarasota Florida. Closed when I was little. I remember going up near the glass and dancing with my sister as they played Disney songs. I would die to go to one of these again. You have no idea how happy this video made me. I loved that place so much.
I'm in my 30s and have never heard of a pizza and organ place before so this is completely foreign to me. It's why I love the USA so much! So many different cultures all in one country. Thanks for sharing!
The largest pipe organ in the world designation may come from the Diaphone Pipes which came from the Organ Grinder in Portland which closed in 1996. Part owner of the Organ Griner was a theater organ enthusiast who assembled the organ from theaters across the country. Parts were added almost constantly. Eventually, the instrument at the Organ Griner employed every sound manufactured by Wurlitzer and a massive console, leading to the largest in the world claim.
The Organ Grinder in Portland was opened in August 1973 and closed in February 1996. It was closed for several reasons including financial problems related to other properties owned by the company. The building was in deteriorating condition and there weren't funds for repair.
This was one of the last places I remember going to right before moving to PA in 2001. My grandparents still mention it to this day. It obviously left a good impression! As for a recommendation: Peter Piper Pizza! I used to love going there as a kid.
For future reference: Reed Block for 32' lLow CCCC: www.flickr.com/photos/b-cat/14689070088/
Keep the series going. Investigate KFC, they are dying here in Arizona, so many have closed since 2007. The most recent one closed a couple of months ago on 24th st and Indian School area. From my experience, poor customer service, constantly running out of, serving dried out biscuits. Why are they dying in general?