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'''The Diamond Horseshoe''' is a restaurant and former dinner-show venue on the border of [[Liberty Square]] and [[Frontierland (Magic Kingdom)]] at [[Magic Kingdom]] at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida. Modelled on an Old West music hall, it opened with the park in 1971 as home of the Diamond Horseshoe Revue, a live saloon show performed alongside a meal. The show ended in 2003, and since then the building has opened for dining only intermittently, often as additional seating for the neighbouring [[Liberty Tree Tavern]].

== History ==
The Diamond Horseshoe Revue opened on 1 October 1971, modelled closely on the Golden Horseshoe Revue at Disneyland. Disney performer Wally Boag, star of the California show, briefly relocated to Florida to help launch it. The show was an hour of western song, dance and comedy, featuring can-can dancers and its signature performer, Slue Foot Sue. At its busiest it was performed as many as ten times a day, with food served at tables facing the stage.

That format ran until 1 October 1986, when the show was revised and renamed the Diamond Horseshoe Jamboree; by then the revue had been recognised by Guinness World Records as the longest-running stage show of its kind. The Jamboree ran until 1995, when the venue reverted to the Revue name but changed in character: reservations were dropped, guests could come and go during the performance, and table service gave way to counter-service food. This final version closed on 1 February 2003.

The building's next occupant was Goofy's Country Dancin' Jamboree, a short character show that opened in July 2003 and closed within about a year. The hall then stood largely unused for several years before reopening seasonally in 2009 as a counter-service restaurant selling sandwiches, without a show.

In March 2016 it returned to table service, serving a family-style feast based on the menu of the Liberty Tree Tavern next door, with which it shares a kitchen. Its operation has remained intermittent in recent years: it has commonly opened during the park's busiest periods, as overflow capacity for its neighbour, and has been given over to other uses at other times. Its history since 2003 is best understood as a series of reopenings rather than a single continuous run.

== Setting ==
The Diamond Horseshoe is designed as a grand frontier saloon and show palace, which suits its position where the colonial styling of [[Liberty Square]] gives way to the West of [[Frontierland (Magic Kingdom)]]. Sources differ on which land the building belongs to, and it is variously listed under each; physically it stands beside the [[Liberty Tree Tavern]].

Inside, the room is arranged as a theatre rather than a conventional restaurant. Tables occupy the floor and a balcony runs around the upper hall, all facing a raised stage framed by an ornate proscenium and lit by chandeliers. Since the end of the revue the stage has generally stood empty except for a player piano, a reminder of the performances the room was built for. Even as a restaurant, the Diamond Horseshoe still reads first as a music hall.

== Cuisine ==
Food at the Diamond Horseshoe has changed with each incarnation. In the revue years guests were served sandwiches and snacks while the show played, and after the 1995 revision the offering became counter-service food carried in during a performance. The seasonal reopening from 2009 likewise centred on sandwiches.

The best-known modern menu is the family-style feast introduced with the return to table service in 2016, sometimes presented as a saloon feast. Modelled on the Liberty Tree Tavern's bill of fare, it is served all-you-care-to-enjoy on shared platters and centres on roasted turkey, pot roast and pork, with mashed potatoes, seasonal vegetables, herb stuffing and macaroni and cheese, preceded by salad and rolls and followed by the same ooey gooey toffee cake served next door. Because the two restaurants share a kitchen, the Diamond Horseshoe's table-service food in this period was effectively the Liberty Tree Tavern meal served in a music hall.

== See also ==
* [[Frontierland (Magic Kingdom)]]
* [[Liberty Square]]
* [[Liberty Tree Tavern]]
* [[Magic Kingdom]]

== References ==
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[[Category:Restaurants]]
[[Category:Magic Kingdom]]
[[Category:1971 establishments in Florida]]