Comment by Valentino Martinez on September 4, 2011 at 1:43am

FYI - Top Gun (1986) - 

For the movie buffs in RBC and particularly the Top Gun movie trivia fans - this photo (and five others entered here) are photographs I took of pictures I noticed hanging on the walls of a restaurant called the "Kansas City Barbeque" located in San Diego, California.

How this relates to recruiting is the fact that in 2006 I accompanied a group, of HR managers/directors/VPs and recruiters from number of Nestle divisions, who were attending the National Hispanic MBA Career Conference being held in San Diego, CA at the time. 

On the first evening there some of us happened to have dinner at the Kansas City Barbeque, to our surprise, the same restaurant bar featured in the movie Top Gun (1986).  Those familiar with the movie may remember the scenes, one in which Goose and Maverick (played by Anthony Edwards and Tom Cruise, respectively) belt out "Great Balls of Fire" while seated at the piano." And, "The bar was also used in the final scene, where the song "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" is heard playing on the jukebox.^[5]  

The reason why these photographs may have some sentimental value is that the Kansas City Barbeque was gutted by a fire in June of 2008.  All of the photographs, many of them autographed by actors and USAF officers/pilots involved with the filming—were destroyed in the fire.  The piano and jukebox (can also be recognized in my photos) were also destroyed.

 

What motivated this post was the fact that while watching “Top Gun”, one of my favorite movies, last week it reminded me of some pictures I took years ago during a recruitment trip I took to San Diego, California.  And for some odd reason I googled KC Barbeque to see if they had a webpage.  To my surprise the following headline got my attention and thus motivated this post. 

It read:

 

Associated Press--

updated 6/27/2008 9:13:00 AM ET 2008-06-27T13:13:00

 

Fire guts San Diego eatery featured in ‘Top Gun’

SAN DIEGO — The restaurant where Tom Cruise crooned to Kelly McGillis in the movie “Top Gun” has been gutted by a fire in San Diego.

A cook at Kansas City Barbecue says the blaze started Thursday in an open cooking pit and spread quickly to the rest of the restaurant’s interior.

San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesman Maurice Luque says the landmark restaurant is “destroyed.”

But no one was hurt and the fire was extinguished in about 20 minutes.

A sign in the restaurant notes that the 1986 movie’s “sleazy bar scene” was filmed there.

Luque estimates the damage at $400,000, not including the cost of photographs and props from the film.

© 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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