Honey, Can We Go to To the Nicest Restaurant in Town? OK, Let’s Go to the Swiss House at Busch Gardens!

Many of the buildings at Busch Gardens have interesting previous lives. A haunted house is a former horse stable, Cobra’s Curse queue is a former Egyptian walk through attraction and Cheetah Hunt’s station was previously used as the station for an inverted monorail that provided views of the Savannah. However, one of the more interesting examples is the Serengeti Overlook, now home to the Giraffe Bar, Oasis Pizza (a quick service food spot) and the pass holder lounge. Would you believe this used to be considered one of the nicest restaurants in all of Tampa?

This building was formerly known as the Swiss House and was built in 1964. It was somewhat isolated at that time and was actually outside the gates of the park. At that point in time it was considered one of the best places in all of Tampa to have a fancy meal and of course had great views of the Serengeti. The Swiss House closed in 1983 and was later reopened in 1990 as the Crown Colony House which was much closer to its current iteration as the Serengeti Overlook than it was to the original. You also of course need a ticket to access it, but if you look to your right when approaching the entrance gate from the parking area you can see how close the building is to the edge of the park.

The building still hosts a restaurant today, however Oasis Pizza probably will never be considered one of the nicest places in Tampa even though things like the meatball sandwich are more than serviceable! There was actually another nicer site down restaurant on the top floor of the building called the Treetop Kitchen until just a few years ago, but this was replaced by the pass holder lounge. If you look at the pictures below you can still see the architecture remains mostly intact. The next time you get a beer at the Giraffe bar or a slice of pizza at Oasis Pizza, sit back and think for a minute of people in the 60’s getting dressed up in their finest for a fancy dinner in the same building called the Swiss House.