Survey Rates World's Top Airport Restaurants

Signage from Tortas Frontera, O'Hare Airport
(photo: Tim Hoey)

A blog called The Daily Meal recently released a ranking of airport dining around the globe. If you're hungry, the place to fly to for a meal near Gate Whatever is Barcelona's Porta Gaig restaurant. The establishment is owned by a chef whose main gig in the Catalan city has earned one star in the Michelin  firmament.

Winning the figurative bronze medal is Tortas Frontera, Rick Bayless' fun outpost at Chicago's O'Hare Airport. My wife and I ate there last month, and took some food home to New Jersey. Yes, it was worth it, especially as it was our main meal immediately after Hurricane Sandy.

The complete story summarizing The Daily Meal post appeared in Bloomberg News.

Brand Name Chefs Fly Into Airport Restaurant Scene

Do you purchase a meal at an airport? There are three reasons I do:

• Getting to the airport at least two hours ahead of departure to accommodate security clearance often leaves time for at least a quick meal.
• Layovers for connecting flights provide time for something to eat.
• Airplane food either does not exist or is dreadful.

Some airports, such as Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International, are the culinary equivalent of the Gobi Desert. If you're lucky, they offer vending machine snacks or exorbitantly priced mystery meat sandwiches. In my recent journeys, I observed the more experienced travelers didn't take chances on finding sustenance at an airport. Well, sometimes it's best to go hungry.

Sign outside Tortas Frontera/O'Hare Airport
(photo by Tim Hoey)

Sensing opportunity, commercially savvy "brand name" chefs are starting to open airport restaurants. My introduction to this welcome phenomenon was at Chicago's O'Hare Airport, where Anglo chef Rick Bayless opened Tortas Frontera, a variation on his Mexican restaurants. The food is handmade, freshly prepared, has soul, and is good quality. On my most recent O'Hare layover, I made it a point to allow extra time to linger at Bayless' storefront-style restaurant/bar and enjoy food I can't get in the New York-New Jersey area, where I live.

Today's online edition of the Chicago Tribune published an LA Times video segment showing food empire builders Wolfgang Puck and Masaharu Morimoto talking about the opening of their new LAX restaurant. They discussed their rationale for launching the venture, which essentially paralleled my own experience. Of course, what they didn't discuss was the brand extension and profit making aspect of the business. They also didn't illuminate the high rents airport authorities charge for commercial space. Travelers don't care about the business details, but they do want airport dining options that are steps beyond dog food.

Expect more from this trend, especially once "branded" chefs come up with a winning business formula for airport dining.