Colonel Hathi's Pizza Outpost

Colonel Hathi's Outpost
Colonel Hathi's Outpost
Disneyland Park (Paris)
Land	Adventureland
Designer	Walt Disney Imagineering
Opening date	1992
Originally named	Explorers Club

Colonel Hathi's Pizza Outpost is a restaurant located in Adventureland, in Disneyland Paris. It opened in 1992 with the park. It specialises in a wide range of pizzas and pastas.

Explorers Club

Photographs of Explorers displayed in the restaurant

At the opening of the park, the building was originally known as Explorers Club Restaurant. It is housed in a colonial estate in a lush jungle, where explorers could rest and have meals. As such, guests could encounter famous European explorers, portrayed by cast on-stage actors, like David Livingstone. The featured soundtrack fitted the theme, with tunes such as Colonel Bogey March or Polyushko Pole.

The Club features a wide outdoor setting area, with one part overlooking waterfalls, and an inside room complete with trees displaying animatronic birds and animals (which was reminiscent of the Tiki Room). Some of these animals even interacted with the actors. The room is also ornamented with artifacts from all over the world, and murals representing journeys by some explorers.

Its meals originally were colonial-inspired, and delivered on table.

The nearby ride Indiana Jones and the Temple of Peril still displays in its queueline part some kegs featuring the name Explorers Club.

Colonel Hathi's Pizza Outpost

Colonel Hathi's Pizza Outpost

In 1993, one year after the opening of the park, the decision was made to turn the restaurant into a counter service for East-Asian meals, since guests lacked interest in table meals. Some of the trees were removed to make way for counter services.

Then, in 1995, the restaurant became an eating place for pizzas and pastas. Its new chosen theme was Rudyard Kipling's Jungle Book, especially its Disney adaptation. Though not entirely, most of the original soundtrack was replaced with samples of this movie's one.

Trivia

• The book From Sketch to Reality features a concept-art, presenting the Explorers Club Restaurant with Commandant Cousteau, Hemingway and Indiana Jones.
• A boat moored in front of the restaurant is a recreation of the one seen in The African Queen, which also inspired the ride Jungle Cruise in other Disney Parks.

External Links

• Photos Magiques - Colonel Hathi's Outpost
• (French) DLP Synopsis - Explorers Club / Colonel Hathi's Outpost
• EuroSouvenirland - Explorers Club Restaurant

References