Launching Pad restaurant in Wilmington to hold grand reopening Friday

The Launching Pad Drive-In restaurant in Wilmington, featuring the famous Gemini Giant muffler man statue, will hold its official reopening this weekend in conjunction with the Illinois Route 66 Red Carpet Corridor Festival.

There will be a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony with the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce at 2 p.m. Friday, according to a news release.

Afterward, the public is encouraged to stay, eat and enjoy the Rusty Nutz Car Club Cruise Night, which is the Launching Pad’s first official cruise night.

The Launching Pad will also be a part of the Red Carpet Corridor Festival on Saturday and will continue the grand reopening with giveaways on Sunday, according to the release.

Co-owners Holly Barker and Tully Garrett bought The Launching Pad in 2017 after it had been closed since 2010 and went into disrepair. They said they came upon it during an antiquing excursion to Wilmington and wanted to restore it to “keep the nostalgia.”

They’ve been working to restore the attraction and planned the reopening of the restaurant this year.

The owners has added a new sign on the front of the building, which was donated by Friendly Signs in Kankakee. The old sign was made out of plywood and had been falling apart.

The restaurant also features an Americana museum and a gift shop, which the owners planned on partially reopening as they were working on the restaurant.

Since February, The Launching Pad has been rolling out their new menu of “comfort food” and is now fully operational. The couple has said they hope to be serving hot dogs and ice cream during the summer.

John and Betty Korelc opened a Dairy Delite at the famous site in 1956. The Gemini Giant was purchased and added to the location in 1965, and the restaurant was expanded and renamed The Launching Pad.

The 28-foot-tall Gemini Giant was one of many giant Muffler Men advertising statues found throughout the country in the 1960s. The statue is named after the Gemini space program and holds a silver rocket ship in its hands, while sporting an astronaut’s space helmet.

Barker and Garrett said they’ve met travelers from all over the country and even all over the world who make the Gemini Giant one of their stops on trips down the historic Route 66.

The Launching Pad is located at 810 E. Baltimore St. (Route 66) in Wilmington. The restaurant is open from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week.

For information, call 815-476-6535 or visit facebook.com/thelaunchingpadroute66.