Restaurant 87 — Runway-Ready LAX Hangar Restaurant Filming Location

Restaurant 87 is one of those LAX spaces that does not need much dressing to read as airport. Built inside a converted aviation hangar, the restaurant opens into a tall steel-truss volume with full-size aircraft suspended over counters, exhibit pieces, lounge seating and polished concrete lanes. For film, photo and commercial work, it is a flexible airport filming location with real aviation scale, plus dining rooms, a terrace, a courtyard and banquet areas that give production several distinct looks on one property.

A Hangar That Already Has The Shot

The main hall has the kind of height and structure cameras love. Exposed open-web trusses, corrugated decking, large ducts and long pendant fixtures stay visible overhead, while the polished concrete floor keeps the space feeling clean and usable. Around the room, a stainless service island, curved food counters and a yellow-framed aviation exhibit give the hangar a working food hall feel without losing its industrial character. The aircraft overhead are the real anchors. A shark-mouth nose and a fighter marked 67 sit high in the frame, so wide shots can hold both the restaurant activity and the aviation story at once. There is also an elevated walkway that looks back across the hall, which is useful for establishing shots over the counters and exhibits. From the floor, the open aisles let a crew compose toward the suspended planes while still feeling the full scale of the airport interior. Depending on the dressing, this can play as an aviation museum, terminal food hall or a contemporary airport gathering space.

Runway Glass And Restaurant Daylight

The runway-facing dining room gives you the LAX context immediately. A nearly continuous wall of floor-to-ceiling glass brings in strong daylight from the airfield side, catching the dark tufted booths and carrying across rows of wood tables. Aircraft, palms and runway activity can sit in the background, which helps interior scenes feel connected to the airport without needing to move the camera outside. When the sun is off the glass, the room still has practical sources from pendant bulbs and recessed fixtures set into the geometric ceiling coffers. The hangar itself also holds daylight through tall perimeter glazing and upper window areas. For commercials, interviews or restaurant scenes that need a clear sense of place, this part of the filming location is especially strong because the view does so much of the storytelling.

Exterior Angles With Airport Identity

Outside, the aviation identity starts before the entrance. A propeller aircraft mounted on a pedestal sits against the hangar-style facade, with red structural trim, broad glazing and large food-and-flight graphics behind it. The curved drive gives production room to build an arrival angle that clearly says airport. The elevated brick terrace opens toward the airfield and is set with square tables and orange mesh chairs. Metal railings keep the view open toward parked planes and aircraft in flight, making it a useful place for lifestyle, dining or travel-related setups. There is also a walled courtyard that feels much quieter and more contained, with globe string lights, pale stucco walls, clipped greenery and arched niches. It reads less airside and more like a small ceremony garden, which adds another texture without leaving the property.

Production Flow And Controlled Rooms

Because the restaurant connects to several different gathering areas, crews have options for separating principal work from holding, support or alternate setups. Shoots can coordinate permitting through FilmLA while planning arrival and staging across the interior and exterior spaces. In the hangar, the concrete flooring is durable under the counters, exhibits and lounge groupings, and stairs connect the main level with the overlook for another camera position. The meeting and banquet rooms give a different finish from the glassy restaurant and industrial hall. One long carpeted room has airfield-facing windows, curtains and a low neutral ceiling. The larger enclosed ballroom has patterned carpet, warm wall sconces and circular tiered chandeliers. When the restaurant or terrace is taking hard daylight, the ballroom is the strongest controlled-light alternative on site.