The downtown San Diego restaurant featured in “Top Gun” is celebrating the blockbuster film’s 30th anniversary with a week of screenings.
Kansas City Barbeque, which opened in 1983, well before much of downtown San Diego’s revitalization, was used for two scenes in the 1986 movie about Navy fighter pilots training at what was then Miramar Naval Air Station.
In the restaurant’s bar, Goose (Anthony Edwards) played the piano and sang “Great Balls of Fire,” and his wife Carole (Meg Ryan) famously announced: “Take me to bed or lose me forever.” And in the movie’s final scene, Maverick (Tom Cruise) and Charlie (Kelly McGillis) reunite as “You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feelin’” plays on the jukebox.
The Navy’s Top Gun staff actually used to hold meetings at the restaurant before the flight training school relocated from Miramar to Fallon, NV. The location scout for the film chose the location after wandering in for a beer.
The original building was gutted in a 2008 fire but rebuilt within six months.
