Cited: MSNBC
Want a great meal while after waiting for those sluggishly-slow ticketing lines and that annoying new list of airport security hoops you have to jump through? This airport dining survival guide offers some of the best places to eat and drink in airports around the country, including where to get a great Cuban sandwich, organic salads and soups, and of course the richest craft beers.
Here’s the list:
Los Angeles International Airport
Encounter Restaurant
At the center of LAX is the 1961 Theme Building, a freestanding structure designed to look like a flying saucer. It’s home to this space-age restaurant, known for 360-degree views, stylings stolen from The Jetsons and California-style dishes like organic salads and mushroom ravioli with grilled asparagus (Theme Building).
Miami International Airport
La Carreta
The airport outpost of Miami’s well-known Cuban chain is open 24 hours, serving favorites like pressed, portable French-bread sandwiches including the Cubano, made with roast pork, Swiss cheese and pickles, and the smaller medianoches (”midnight”) made with ham, cheese and pickles (Terminal D, post-security).
John F. Kennedy International Airport
Aeronuova
JetBlue’s Terminal 5 has nine full-service restaurants; the best is Aeronuova, an Italian restaurant created by New York City star chef Mark Ladner, with dishes like grilled Berkshire pork chops and warm radicchio bruschetta (Terminal 5, post-security).
San Francisco International Airport
Anchor Brewing Company
The famed San Francisco brewery’s airport outpost serves the full range of its craft beers, including its Anchor Steam Beer, made using a unique brewing process that gives it the fruitiness of an ale and the rounded maltiness of a lager (Terminal 3, Gate 70).
After you Eat
By the way, Newark, LAX and all the rest have tough-as-nails laws about smoking and outdoor spots where you can light up. Don’t want to? Try switching from your favorite brand to one of the leading distributors of the popular and widely accepted (in airports even!) NJoy the smokeless cigarettes. As an alternative, and especially for travelling, it’s awesome because in addition to smokeless e-cigs, you can also purchase an electronic cigarette charger that can go anywhere you go.
Back to dining:
Newark Liberty International Airport
Vino Volo
This growing chain of cushy airport wine bars serves small plates of cheese, cured meats, olives, and dishes like chilled paella and duck-confit-and-lentil salad. The food is available to go, and you can also order wines you’ve tasted for home delivery (Terminal C, Gate 73).
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
One Flew South
This sushi restaurant is Atlanta’s first upscale airport restaurant, complete with a menu created by chefs Todd Richards and Duane Nutter of The Oakroom at the Seelbach Hilton in Kentucky (Terminal E, near Gate G6).
Philadelphia International Airport
Chickie’s & Pete’s
The Philadelphia airport recently overhauled its main food court, adding an outlet of this lively South Philly crab house known for its chowder, steak sandwiches and “crab fries,” or French fries seasoned with crab-boil seasoning and served with a creamy cheese dipping sauce (Terminal A-West).
________________________
My take: I’ve travelled extensively and, while I know there are certainly a lot more choices these days for food in airports, dining in any airport is costly. If you’re in business you might want to ask your boss to consider putting you up long term in a nearby hotel and renting a car to drive to local clients. I travel a lot to the D.S. area and know they have amazing maid service, for example, at all the local extended stays, where Virginia cleaning services are available, in case you spill the merlot on the company paid for carpet. They will do corporate offices and service extended stay hotels for pretty reasonable prices. You can even get great residential Washington DC carpet cleaning services
Eating is important when you’re away on business. But what about communication with the office? That’s always been my Achilles heel. I’ve been unable to contact my voice mail outside of the office and in many cases would have much rather preferred access to a reliable call center solutions provider. Good call center providers make it possible to keep close to my clients and my boss. Once that’s handled, I’ll eat just about anything.
————————————
Other Resources
RECENT COMMENTS