You know what they say about airport food: It's bad, but at least it's expensive.
The reason is simple: a captive audience, short on time and unlikely to be repeat customers. Why sell low when you can sell high? For frequent travellers, this can put a real strain on the wallet and on the gut. But now that more airlines are dropping free food service, more people will be looking to pre- and post-flight dining options. Most food at airports the world over is iffy – but if you know where to look, you can see the market responding.
And, according to Michael Blackie, a frequent traveller and head chef at Le Café at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, there is at least one bright spot on the domestic scene: Trudeau Airport's Montreal Bread Company's franchise, which specializes in high-quality, low-priced sandwiches. “I took my family to Disney World last summer and we had this awesome breakfast there,” he says.
Blackie also mentions the new Wolfgang Puck at Pearson in Toronto – but in the same breath as the Tim Hortons he goes to when passing through Ottawa's airport. Good name, bland food.
Globe@YVR, the restaurant at Vancouver airport's Fairmont hotel, is another national contender. It features mostly local ingredients, including a 100-mile menu and herbs and vegetables grown at the hotel's own garden nearby. But it's expensive; you'll pay $32 for Fraser Valley duck breast.
Chef Blackie does like the Caviar House and Prunier at Hong Kong International Airport. Purveyors of fish eggs and Balik salmon at Heathrow and now JFK and Hong Kong airports, they are one of the travelling gourmand's only refuges. Still, glorious as the flavours can be, smoked salmon and caviar are more presented than prepared.
Recently, a new restaurant heralded better things to come: Plane Food opened at Heathrow's new Terminal 5 in March, 2008. The 180-seat bistro, part of the Gordon Ramsay empire, offers what you would expect from a chef-driven restaurant in town: interesting food, well prepared and properly plated.
“It's been an education,” says Plane Food's executive chef, Stuart Gillies – who is also executive chef at Ramsay's Boxwood Café in London –about the experience of serving food inside an airport. “It's a completely different set of needs.” The menu is put together to reflect the requirements of its clientele: the average time at the table is 25 minutes. And nothing costs more than $28.
The formula has worked. Gillies says Plane Food, which cost $4.3-million to set up, has taken in revenues of $7.5-million so far this year. “We have more A-list, high-profile regulars than most of the best restaurants in London,” he says. The list includes frequent fliers such as David and Victoria Beckham, Paris Hilton and most of Manchester United.
Seven months after the Heathrow opening, JetBlue's new Terminal 5 at JFK in New York kicked it up a notch, opening last October with 22 restaurants. Many of them are typical food-court offerings – there's a Dunkin' Donuts and a Jamba Juice – but there are also five chef-driven, fully designed spots.
Aeronuova is Mario Batali protégé Mark Ladner's take on trattoria Italian. Revolución is former Rosa Mexicana chef Roberto Santibañez's high-toned retort to every soggy $8 taco ever served at an airport. The others include a high-end sushi restaurant. All have sub-$30 (U.S.) menus and well-designed spaces.
But possibly best of all are what JetBlue's calling Re:Vive – airside touch screens through which you can order anything from any of the restaurants, to be delivered to you within 15 minutes. A sign of things to come, perhaps.
Special to The Globe and Mail
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WHERE TO EAT
Encounter Dining Los Angeles International Airport. Wacky Mars Attacks!-style furnishings in the airport's iconic Theme Building. Try the pan-seared Maine diver scallops on a Peruvian tarragon mash.
Montreal Bread Company (MBCo.) Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport, Montreal. It's quick and cheap, with items like whole wheat roasted veal pizzas and sandwiches on freshly baked bread.
Legal Sea Foods Café, Restaurant and Test Kitchen Logan Airport, Boston, terminals A, B and C. Don't miss the chowder.
Ivar's Fish and Chips and Anthony's Seafood Sea-Tac, Seattle, central terminal. Anthony's is sit-down, Ivar's is takeout, but both are renowned in U.S. flying circles for the quality of their local seafood.
Globe @ YVR Vancouver International Airport, U.S. departures hall. $32 mains mitigate the enthusiasm over what's probably Canada's best airport food.
Caviar House & Prunier Various locations including Hong Kong International, JFK and Dubai Airport.
B.A.
