Estacada's
Legendary Safari Club has to be seen to be believed! Apparently, back in the '60s a dude named Glen E. Park went on a bunch of safaris to six different countries, shooting things left and right. He had their corpses shipped back to Spokane, WA to a famous taxidermy company for stuffing. Not content with displaying them in his own home, he bought a restaurant in 1970 and shared his trophies with the world. After changing hands many times, the current owners have many of the original animals on display. Although they have a full bar, kids are welcome in the restaurant section. Don't think you'll get away with checking out the display without grabbing a bite- the displays are for customers only. They do mention on their website that many of the animals are actually in their banquet room, which is normally closed during business hours. But what you can see is pretty extensive. The menu is not exactly vegetarian friendly (I should think this place would be a vegetarian's worst nightmare, so I can't imagine why they'd bother). It's fried food heaven, and the fried stuff is not half bad! We decided to live it up and ordered steaks. My husband ordered his medium, and it was decidedly red. I ordered mine medium-rare, and mine was still mooing! Perhaps this is in homage to the many carnivores that surround the restaurant employees all day, and carnivores doubtless prefer their meat raw. In that spirit, we dug in. They also served our food with canned green beans, which are my arch enemy! I get positively indignent when I go to a restaurant in a state with a strong agricultural tradition, in the height of summer, and get served canned green beans. (On one trip to Ohio, I felt decidedly jinxed, because they seemed to come to me unordered at positively every meal...) So my advice is to stick to the fried stuff, it won't let you down! Anyway, back to the critters... I somehow expected lots of heads on the walls, and while there were some (including an elephant, for God's sake!), what you mostly get are lots of full-scale dioramas. They are somewhat like what you might find at any large natural history museum, with a few things compromising the naturalistic effect. These include an overwhelming preference for violent predator attacks, combined with a desire to stuff as many critters into the scene as space will allow. As if a violent predator attack would tend to attract a bunch of nosey animal onlookers. Is it wonderful? Is it horrible? Or both?! One thing's for sure, this isn't today's ironic hipster taxidermy (for that, visit
Paxton Gate, where you will find mice with angel wings and jackalopes). This is the real deal! Jasper thought it was both thrilling and hysterically funny. Check it out!
Estacada's Legendary Safari Club has to be seen to be believed! Apparently, back in the '60s a dude named Glen E. Park went on a bunch of safaris to six different countries, shooting things left and right. He had their corpses shipped back to Spokane, WA to a famous taxidermy company for stuffing. Not content with displaying them in his own home, he bought a restaurant in 1970 and shared his trophies with the world. After changing hands many times, the current owners have many of the original animals on display. Although they have a full bar, kids are welcome in the restaurant section. Don't think you'll get away with checking out the display without grabbing a bite- the displays are for customers only. They do mention on their website that many of the animals are actually in their banquet room, which is normally closed during business hours. But what you can see is pretty extensive. The menu is not exactly vegetarian friendly (I should think this place would be a vegetarian's worst nightmare, so I can't imagine why they'd bother). It's fried food heaven, and the fried stuff is not half bad! We decided to live it up and ordered steaks. My husband ordered his medium, and it was decidedly red. I ordered mine medium-rare, and mine was still mooing! Perhaps this is in homage to the many carnivores that surround the restaurant employees all day, and carnivores doubtless prefer their meat raw. In that spirit, we dug in. They also served our food with canned green beans, which are my arch enemy! I get positively indignent when I go to a restaurant in a state with a strong agricultural tradition, in the height of summer, and get served canned green beans. (On one trip to Ohio, I felt decidedly jinxed, because they seemed to come to me unordered at positively every meal...) So my advice is to stick to the fried stuff, it won't let you down! Anyway, back to the critters... I somehow expected lots of heads on the walls, and while there were some (including an elephant, for God's sake!), what you mostly get are lots of full-scale dioramas. They are somewhat like what you might find at any large natural history museum, with a few things compromising the naturalistic effect. These include an overwhelming preference for violent predator attacks, combined with a desire to stuff as many critters into the scene as space will allow. As if a violent predator attack would tend to attract a bunch of nosey animal onlookers. Is it wonderful? Is it horrible? Or both?! One thing's for sure, this isn't today's ironic hipster taxidermy (for that, visit Paxton Gate, where you will find mice with angel wings and jackalopes). This is the real deal! Jasper thought it was both thrilling and hysterically funny. Check it out!
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