By: Henna Bakshi and Katie Gile
Time machines do exist. At least they do at Shuttles Dugout Sports Bar and Grill where the joint sends you whirling through years of space missions the very moment you set foot inside. From the outside, it appears as unassuming as any other Mom-and-Pop diner in Florida: a simple blue building, an old baseball mural on the wall, a little back deck and a single discreet sign to announce its presence to the masses.
We arrived at 10 a.m. This was no ordinary morning; July 8 was the day of the last shuttle Atlantis lift-off.

The 31-year-old restaurant fashions walls (and even a ceiling) peppered with pictures of NASA missions including Buzz Aldren’s trip to the moon. The walls also boast signed photographs of the astronauts themselves and even a framed autograph from Yankees great Joe DiMaggio.
“I’ve seen a lot of famous faces,” said Dana Watson, nine year employee of Shuttles. “We’ve had meet and greets, a lot of famous people, not just the astronauts, but with the famous people nobody sees–the engineers, the scientists and so on.”

Soon, we were seated and our eyes were reluctantly dragged from the walls to our menus.

“Try their burgers,” recommended a local. “They’re the best.”
The word of the locals about restaurants can almost guarantee a place’s authenticity. We braved to order the classic Famous Shuttles Burger and the Infamous Apollo Burger.

Thirty minutes to launch time, our burgers arrived looking just as glorious as the day we were celebrating. The Famous Shuttles Burger came as a thick patty grilled to a medium with swiss cheese, mushrooms, tomatoes, lettuce and a side of crispy hot fries. The Infamous Apollo Burger was slightly more intimidating with two thick patties, cheddar cheese, crispy bacon and oodles of barbeque sauce.

The first bites involved grease dripping down our hands, the tender patties were creamy and the fries made everything come to life. We were in burger heaven.

“We’ve named burgers after every shuttle that’s launched,” said server Casey. “We just created an Atlantis burger with salsa, cheddar and jalapeños.”

With all its flair and delicious food, Shuttles serves as an important historical part of the Space Coast. Its great view of every launch afforded civilians the chance to see the glowing triumph of the astronauts firsthand as Atlantis soared through the sky.

It’s not all fun and games in the dugout, however.

“When we lost Columbia … it was a sad time. Before that, I never realized how serious it was and how dangerous it was to send our astronauts up there. That made the biggest impact on me and made me realize how important this program really is for America,” said Watson.
“This place has seen every single one of the shuttle launches,” said Bill Grillo Jr., son of the owner to Shuttles. “The business may decline since this is the last for a while, but we’re keeping optimistic.”
A shop barely twenty feet from Shuttles is Space Shirts that sells custom space themed tees and souvenirs. Jerry Mulberrry, owner and thirty-year space center veteran said the dugout and them often share customers.
“The last launch does put a downer on business,” said Mulberry. “I’ve been working with the station for over thirty years now and just got laid off in April because there weren’t going to be any more launches.”
Mulberry, too, is optimistic to keep his business running strong even without the shuttles launching.

At 11:30 a.m. Mulberry and Grillo both forgot about the struggle for their business and joined the others outside in the united excitement to watch the Atlantis leave Earth. For the bare 30 seconds we saw Atlantis, the ground shook, the sky rumbled and everybody cheered.
“I came here for my kid,” said Frank Esposito, customer at Shuttles dugout. “I wanted him to be a part of history; I traveled all the way from South Florida just for this.”

This was our first and last live shuttle launch for quite a while, it seems. We couldn’t have done it in any way better—with huge burgers in hand and a great view from the Shuttles Dugout Bar and Grill.