#41: Arnold Palmer's Restaurant
There could have been a million, but Arnold Palmer didn’t want that. There’s only one Arnold Palmer’s Restaurant, and it’s in La Quinta, California, not far from Palmer’s desert home.
“He said he wanted it to be within five minutes of where he lived,” says Palmer’s close friend and former LPGA Commissioner Charlie Mechem, who was a neighbor of Palmer's at Tradition Golf Club. “The second thing he said was that he wanted it to serve the kind of food he enjoyed.” And though the menu has changed over the years, it’s still full of Palmer favorites, including Arnie’s Famous Meatloaf, ribs, steaks and, of course, banana splits, invented in Palmer’s hometown of Latrobe, Pennsylvania. “There are lunch counters and grills and things like that all over the world called ‘Arnie’s pub’ or whatever,” Mechem explains. “But there's only one Arnold Palmer’s Restaurant, and that’s what he wanted.”
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