Cosmic Ray's Starlight Café
Cosmic Ray's Starlight Café is a quick-service restaurant in Tomorrowland at Magic Kingdom in Walt Disney World, Florida. Presented in its story as the first Earth franchise of an interplanetary restaurant chain, run by the alien proprietor Cosmic Ray, it is one of the largest counter-service locations in the park. It opened under its present name on December 9, 1994, during the New Tomorrowland rebuilding, on the site of the original Tomorrowland Terrace, and since 1995 it has been the home of the Audio-Animatronic lounge singer Sonny Eclipse.
History
The site opened with the park on October 1, 1971, as the Tomorrowland Terrace, sponsored by Coca-Cola. Contemporary training material described it as the largest fast-food operation at Walt Disney World, with a conveyor cooking system said to be capable of producing 3,000 hamburgers an hour. Like its Disneyland counterpart, it incorporated a rising stage for live entertainment. From 1976 into the mid-1980s its best-known performer was Michael Iceberg, who played rapid, theatrical sets on a large synthesizer rig billed as the Iceberg Machine.
Tomorrowland was comprehensively rethemed in 1994 as a retro-futuristic spaceport, and the Terrace closed in September of that year to be brought into the new story. It reopened in December as Cosmic Ray's Starlight Café, keeping the large multi-counter layout but reframing it as a restaurant serving both Tomorrowland residents and visitors from other planets.
Layout and food
Ordering is organised into three counters, traditionally called bays, each with its own kitchen line. Although the exact assignments and items change with menu revisions, the division has generally separated chicken dishes at one bay, burgers and hot dogs at another, and sandwiches, soups and salads at the third, with some popular items duplicated across bays so that a party does not need to split up unnecessarily. Rotisserie chicken with mashed potatoes and vegetables, served for many years as a half-chicken plate and in a chicken-and-ribs combination, became the restaurant's signature non-burger dish, alongside Angus cheeseburgers, chicken nuggets and sandwiches, barbecue pork, hot dogs including a chili-cheese version, and vegetarian burgers and wraps.
Seating spreads through several indoor areas on two levels, including the Starlight Lounge on the lower level, and onto an outdoor terrace facing Mad Tea Party and the edge of Fantasyland. A toppings and condiment bar, long a feature of the restaurant, supports the burger and sandwich menu.
Sonny Eclipse
The Starlight Lounge is dominated by Sonny Eclipse, an Audio-Animatronic alien singer who performs from a stage that can be raised and lowered in the manner of the old Terrace stage, allowing live acts to use the space when he is not performing. Billed as the biggest little star in the galaxy, Sonny is presented as a native of Yew Nork City on the planet Zork, accompanying himself on an astro-organ. His voice was provided by blues musician Kal David, and his set, written by George Wilkins and Kevin Rafferty, runs for roughly twenty-five minutes and contains eight songs, including numbers introducing himself, addressing the Space Angels who back him, and celebrating Yew Nork. The figure itself was adapted from an Audio-Animatronic character originally created for Tokyo Disneyland.
Sonny's continuous performances make Cosmic Ray's unusual among quick-service restaurants in providing a full show as part of the dining room, and the character has developed a following independent of the food served around him.