In keeping with memorializing the 3,000 souls who lost their lives on 9/11, today’s WSJ profiles the “spectacular’” Windows of the World, NYC’s famous restaurant, one quarter of a mile high, was attacked again. In 1993, a truck bomb detonated on the sublevel of the World Trade Center, injuring more than 1,000 people and killing six.

The restaurant, already in need of updating for health ordinances and building codes, shuttered for a three-year renovation.

Included in the bustling scene was the “Greatest Bar in the World,” according to one bombastic compliment. Looking to encourage a younger demographic set, the piano was placed in the middle of the room, surrounded by 3 bars. Featured were share plates and global street food like kebabs and dumplings “for a hungry, striving clientele.”

“The idea was that as customers grew older, they would become more mature and we would be greeting our own future customers,” Whiteman, a partner of the restaurant, said. “It was a good idea, and it was a great success, but the future never arrived.”

A Shift in the Dining Culture

Despite its lofty heights, Windows of the World never deviated from its initial intent: “no lofty or fine dining conventions. “

“If you had beef bourguignon on the menu, you would have to find a way to describe it in English.”

The idea was that as customers grew older, they would become more mature and we would be greeting our own future customers,” Whiteman said. “It was a good idea, and it was a great success, but the future never arrived.”

And Then the World Changed Forever

The Journal reports: For several years, Windows would run neck and neck with Tavern on the Green as the highest-grossing restaurant in the U.S.; in 2000, its last full year of operations, Windows on the World held the mantle.