When people ask Karen McClintock, Disney’s manager of global public relations for food and beverage, about the evolution of dining around this iconic realm, she tells them it really wasn’t an evolution.

“It was a revolution.”

And the shot heard ’round the world was California Grill .

Lobster tail, flawlessly cooked, makes a sumptuous $28 add-on. (Amy Drew Thompson/Orlando Sentinel)

The “revolutionary” restaurant is celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2025. And McClintock, who started with the company in 1992, was there at the very beginning.

So, too, was the restaurant space, which opened at Disney’s Contemporary Resort in 1971 as Top of the World, a supper club where big-name acts — Rosemary Clooney, Mel Torme, Diahann Carroll and many more — would play for two-week stints

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