History of Tall Pines Café
Tall Pines Phase I: In 2002 the Vintage café was located under tall pine trees located at the end of the Ultra Light Runway. When moving to the permanent location, the name Tall Pines Café remained.
Tall Pines Phase II: In 2004 the next step was a modern permanent kitchen to meet all safety and health codes. The menu expanded and the people kept coming. Dozens of Vintage Volunteers continued to get up before dawn each day to prepare breakfast for other members. With no commercial vendors willing to operate on the south end of the field, Tall Pines began to open for both breakfast and supper the weekend prior to convention as we still do today.
Tall Pines Phase III: Funded by member contributions and completed in time for AirVenture 2015 – a permanent concrete seating area also designed to become the foundation for a permanent dining pavilion.
At their November 2015 meeting the Vintage Board of Directors approved going forward with the final phase of Tall Pines Café – the construction of a permanent dining pavilion.
The members and guests were so pleased with the new concrete floor at AirVenture 2015, a number of Vintage members started a capital fundraising campaign to construct the final phase. Enough contributions came in to begin the project. Updates and improvements continue to take place as needed, with new tables and chairs purchased in November of 2019 to replace the wooden picnic tables, and a new donut machine for AirVenture 2021.
The dining pavilion design is similar to the pavilion at the EAA Nature Center with overhead doors which can be opened in good weather with a perfect view of the Vintage Showplane area and the airshow runway.
Once breakfast service is over, the pavilion can be used for type club meetings, the Vintage Picnic, Volunteer Party and more. During the off-season this permanent facility provides much-needed storage for the growing Vintage area of AirVenture.
