The Bomber Restaurant

When Art Lacey, a young pilot and gasoline station owner, envisioned combining his two passions into a business, people questioned his sanity. The Bomber, located in Milwaukie, Oregon, was once a gas station and is now a restaurant with a vintage World War II B-17 G bomber—known as the “Flying Fortress”—prominently exhibited in its parking lot. It is quintessential Americana and an Oregon landmark.

The restaurant's theme is tied to the B-24 bombers that were made during World War II at the nearby Willow Run bomber plant. The Bomber opened in 1936 as Baldwin's Diner. In the 1940s the name became 'The Bomber'; later changed to Bob's Barbecue in the mid- 1970s. Make sure to stop in and check out what’s on the menu today!

Art Lacey purchased the retired war bird at an Air Force base in Oklahoma and flew it to Oregon in 1947. His first attempt resulted in a crash, but that didn't stop him. He finally got it home and hoisted the plane up over the family-owned forty-pump gas station—the largest single-volume gas station in the United States in the 1960s—and it now sits off to the side of the home-style restaurant that serves up Bomber Burgers, chicken-fried steaks, and thick shakes. On most mornings, customers can find World War II veterans and their families dining in the restaurant, a ritual some have followed since the restaurant opened.

The property also has a children's playground and a museum, which is dedicated to World War II and houses an extensive collection of war memorabilia. Veterans meet here regularly to share stories.

The Bomber is a one-of-a-kind establishment, a place for classic American food and a reminder of times past and the men and women who served in World War II.

The Bomber, 1960s.

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.By Hotel Type.By Hotel Class.By Hotel Brand.Popular Amenities.Popular Neighborhoods.Popular Portland Categories.Near Landmarks.Near Train Stations.Near Colleges.Popular Types of Food.Popular Dishes.Popular Restaurant Categories.Popular Neighborhoods. The Bomber restaurant lost it's iconic B-17 bomber that has graced the area since 1947, but the restaurant remains a mainstay for local dining, especially for breakfast. Decorated with WWII aviation pictures and history surrounding Art Lacey and the bomber. They serve meals all day long, but we have mostly gone for family breakfasts, especially since it was my father in law's frequent breakfast stop for years.

Large servings and friendly, family owned, service. We love the strawberry jelly in the squeeze bottles for your toast. The omelettes can get kind of expensive when you start with a basic and then pay for each additional item added. They have back room areas for meeting, but it can get somewhat noisy at times. Plenty of parking although much is not marked well. 50's like dinner!! Locals seem to like it as there were quite a few tables whom the waite staff new by first names.

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Used to be a gas station here on the same property with a WWII vintage B17G propped up over, but the Bomber is in now in a hanger in Salem, OR being restored. Great story on a hand out about how it go there and the VERY Patriotic, now passed, owner who brought it up from Arkansas in 1947. Ask for the hand out and don't miss walking around looking at the memoribalia on the walls. OH, Yes, the food!!!!!!!

Great chops but the fixins where just okay. No one greeted us when we arrived so after waiting awhile and checking out a menu we found on the counter, a few of us (we had 5 people) wandered into the dining area where a server stepped out of the kitchen, said Hi and advised us to go ahead and seat ourselves.

We found a booth and the I will rate the service after this point as ʻaverageʻ with this note: We had 2 different servers throughout our experience, and although they were both pleasant, they both had a weird, high energy thing going on - we all noticed it: the mannerisms and repeated words and actions were awkward and unnerving. It was difficult to look at one of them because of the way her eyes stared, then rolled. Food was bad.

I had a steak - it was dry and totally overcooked, I ate less than half of it. My friend had country fried steak, it was over seasoned, over cooked and very oily he ate a few bites then left it. Others in our party agreed the food was yuck but they ate it. We arrived for lunch about 1:30, and apparently hit a shift change or something. We waited for a few minutes to be seated, even though most tables were already empty. Once seated in the front part of the restaurant, we were kind of forgotten for a little while. One server brought us water and menus right away, and then we saw no one for about 10 minutes.

Another person came by, and we told her we were ready to order, and she said she'd go get our server. Another wait. A third person came by and said that she didn't know exactly who our server would be, but that she would get us started. Then two other people came up to her to tell her that someone else would be our server, but she was in the back or something. All told, we waited nearly 15 minutes to place our order, but I gathered that this probably wasn't the norm for this establishment.

We ordered an appetizer, and it was delivered about a minute before the main course. All the food was very good - very lean beef in the French Dip sandwich, cooked perfectly. The shrimp salad was large, and everything in it was crisp and fresh. The sweet potato fries were delicious.

As I said, I think our server problem was just a shift change glitch, and since we weren't in a particular rush, it didn't have a huge detrimental effect on our meal. If there had been no lengthy wait, this experience would definitely have been excellent.

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