The Top Gun House Is Now A Restaurant

A Queen Anne cottage featured prominently in the 1986 film Top Gun has been freshly restored just in time for the May 24 release of Top Gun: Maverick. Only it’s not been revamped for someone to live in.

Built in 1887, the Graves House is one of the oldest homes in the San Diego area, and it now has a new life as the High Pie at the Top Gun House, a dessert-driven eatery at Mission Pacific Hotel in Oceanside, California. It opens for the first time this May with chef Tara Lazar of F10 Hospitality (also behind Cheeky’s restaurant and the Alcazar hotel in Palm Springs, California) at the helm.

What inspired the High Pie name is Lazar’s signature “high pie” dish: a fried fruit-filled hand pie topped with mascarpone ice cream.

Several scenes in the original Top Gun, featuring Kelly McGillis and Tom Cruise, were filmed in the house.

“Prior to restoration, the vacant house was in a serious state of disrepair,” says Jeremy Cohen, senior vice president of S.D. Malkin Properties, the hotel’s ownership group. “Luckily, there were two old photos that showed the house before it was altered that provided guidance for the architect and contractor to accurately reconstruct all of the missing 1887 details.” Cohen collaborated with David Marshall, president of Heritage Architecture & Planning, and Frank Ternasky of Delawie Architects while staying true to the home’s historic roots.

Restoring the bungalow-style cottage was a labour of love. First, it had to be relocated two blocks from its original site, at Pacific Street and Seagaze Drive, to a temporary work site for structural repair before finding its new home in the hotel’s courtyard overlooking the Oceanside Pier. Among the projects were restoring the wood cladding and front windows, dismantling the original chimney, and rebuilding it with the same historic bricks, and bringing back gingerbread details. Both porches had also been damaged and were restored.

Once at the hotel, the exterior was painted white and sky blue, with a red door to look like it had in Top Gun. Movie memorabilia was arranged throughout the interiors, modernized by Nicolò G. Bini at Line Architecture, whose past projects include Cara Delevingne’s home. Bini worked closely with the Oceanside Historical Society and Save Our Heritage Organization. A whitewashed background (particularly the fireplace, built-ins, panels, and moldings) is punched up with framed Victorian-era art along with needlepoint upholstery from artist Mary Lou Marks of Round Top, Texas. Her work can be seen on bar stools and the fireplace, where a faux cow’s head is mounted above and, instead of wooden logs, there are plush fiber versions within. Vintage furnishings, octopus-themed wallpaper, and vertical blue-and-white stripes surrounding the bar add further visual interest.

As yet another nod to Top Gun, a refurbished Yamaha Kawasaki Ninja ZX900 motorcycle just like Cruise’s in the movie is an Instagram-perfect prop for guests.

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