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2 businesses at this address since 1956

Chastain's Restaurant

23 N Orange Blossom Trl, Orlando, FL

A truck-stop-style breakfast spot with a glass radio booth in the parking lot, closed after one last breakfast on September 3, 1996.

📅 1956–1996🏛️ RestaurantDemolished
Open on the mapSlide back to 1956

The story

Burrell and Helen Chastain moved to Central Florida from Indiana in 1948. In 1956 they took over the former Arrowhead Restaurant at 23 North Orange Blossom Trail. The menu barely changed in 40 years, with biscuits and honey on every table, and the crowd ran from politicians and police to truckers and athletes. In the 1970s Black ministers met there for breakfast several days a week to discuss civil rights.

A two-story lighted glass booth in the parking lot hosted live radio from WFIV-AM and WHOO-AM, and passing drivers honked at the DJs. After Hurricane Donna in 1960, Burrell grilled free food for about 1,500 neighbors. Burrell died in 1979 and son Bill took over. As tourism shifted away from the Trail, and with road construction taking front parking, Bill closed it on September 3, 1996, saying he did not want to die on OBT. The building was demolished in January 1998 for an Al's Army Store Warehouse.

What's There Now

The building was torn down in 1998 for an Al's Army Store Warehouse; the site's current use was not confirmed.

Everything that was here

Did you know?

Bill Chastain started at age 14 as a dip-out man at the steam table.
Chastain's colored hundreds of dozens of Easter eggs for children to hunt.
The Rolling Stones' 1981 Citrus Bowl concerts packed the restaurant.

Nearby history

Goff's Drive-In

212 S Orange Blossom Trl · 328 m away
A walk-up ice cream stand in Parramore that served Black and white customers at the same window and kept going through a

Parliament House

410 N Orange Blossom Trl · 548 m away
A 1962 motor inn that became Orlando's best-known gay resort in 1975, and closed in November 2020 when the owners could

Orlando Stadium / Tangerine Bowl (Camping World Stadium)

1 Citrus Bowl Place · 735 m away
Opened in late 1936 as Orlando Stadium with 8,900 seats, then rebuilt so many times that its 2014 reconstruction demolis

Tinker Field

287 S Tampa Ave · 847 m away
A spring training ballpark where Martin Luther King Jr. spoke from the pitcher's mound in 1964, torn down so the Citrus

Orlando Arena / Amway Arena

600 W Amelia St · 1.3 km away
The Magic's first home, a $110 million public-money arena that locals called the O-Rena, imploded in 2012.

Orlando Municipal Auditorium (Bob Carr Theater)

401 W Livingston St · 1.4 km away
Opened in 1927 with Aida, later renamed for a mayor, and slated for reuse after the Dr. Phillips Center took over.

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Sourceshttps://orlandomemory.org/places/chastains-restaurant/