HMSHost

Airport Restaurant Month

Food, , , ,

60 airport restaurants participating

October is Airport Restaurant Month at more than 60 HMSHost restaurants in more than 40 airports around the country.

And this year there’s a fun contest on the menu.

Airport Restaurant Month features tasting menus much like those you’ll find in many cities this time year: diners can select from three appetizers and a variety of entrees.

Menus may vary slightly by restaurant, but some of the core Airport Restaurant Month dishes include: 

·      Orecchiette Pasta featuring sautéed super-food greens, parmesan, and buttered herb breadcrumbs

·      Shrimp Scampi Flatbread with garlic shrimp, grape tomatoes, mozzarella, lemon zest, and red pepper flakes

·      Harissa Burger topped with arugula, pickled red onions, harissa aioli, provolone cheese, and smoked bacon

·      Crispy Chicken Sandwich with crunchy Asian slaw, gochujang BBQ sauce, and pickle chips

Now here’s the contest part, which runs through October 31, 2019:

When you eat at one of the participating HMSHost restaurants, ask for an Airport Restaurant Month Passport.

Collect a passport stamp for each Airport Restaurant Dish you purchase.

When you have four stamps, snap a photo of the completed passport and post the image to Facebook, Twitter or Instagram using the hashtag #airportrestaurantmonth. Be sure to also tag @HMSHost.

At the end of October 2019, HMSHost will choose a winner at random. The prize will include airfare, a hotel stay and dinner at a James Beard award-winning restaurant in New York City for the winner and a guest. See the full contest rules for Airport Restaurant Month.

Travel Tidbits from an airport near you

Airports, , , , , ,

Tampa International welcomes visitors past security

This week Tampa International Airport (TPA) introduces a program that offers non-ticketed guests access to the shops, restaurants, artwork and gate areas beyond security.

TPA’s program is called All-Access and will issue passes to 100 people each Saturday, starting on May 4. Passes will be good all day, from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

TPA has four distinct Airsides (A, C, E and F) and each week the 100 passes will be divied up by 25 passes issued for each Airside. So, to figure out which Airside to request, visitors should check out TPA’s shopping and dining guide.

Tampa International Airport is the second airport in the nation to offer non-ticketed guests this perk. Pittsburgh International Airport’s MyPITPass started in 2017 and offer passes on weekdays.

Airport Restaurant Month

HMSHost has brought back Airport Restaurant Month to 60 of its dining venues in airports across the country.

Throughout May, diners can choose from a selection of three appetizers and four entrees at the participating restaurants.

The menus may vary a bit by restaurant, but most will offer their take on Seared Salmon, Flatbread Prima Vera, a Spicy Slaw Burger, a Buttermilk Fried Chicken Sandwich and an AM Wrap.

The meals include a dark chocolate sea salt bar as well.

See the menus and find the full of list of restaurants participating in HMSHost’s Airport Restaurant Month here.

SFO moves pick-up spot for ride-hailing pick ups

Starting June 3, travelers getting picked up by ride-hailing services such as Uber, Lyft or Wingz at San Francisco International Airport (SFO) will have to head to the Domestic Hourly Parking Garage.

International Terminal pickups will continue in the current location (at the center island of the Departure level roadway) and all ride-hailing drop-offs will continue to occur at designated upper-level departure curbside areas.

The change is designed to lighten traffic on the airport’s terminal roadway and comes after Uber X and Lyft began offering their customers a $3 discount if they chose to be picked up in the Airport’s Domestic Hourly Garage instead of at curbside.

That didn’t do much to reduce congestion, so in June SFO is going ahead and moving all domestic ride-hailing ride pickups to the Domestic Hourly Parking Garage.

Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, McCarran’s Las Vegas International Airport and an increasing number of other airports direct ride-hailing customers to a central garage area for picks ups as well.

And this from the TSA Week in Review:

Between April 22 and 28, TSA security officers found 85 firearms in carry-on bags at airports. 75 of those firearms were loaded and 28 of those firearms had a round chambered.

Alarmed?

O’Hare Airport cook-off crowns 2019 winner

Food, Uncategorized, , , ,

On Tuesday morning Terminal 2 at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport began to smell.

But in a good way.

The source of the smell: aromas from the fifth annual Channel Your Inner Chef  culinary competition hosted by airport restaurateur HMSHost and the Chicago Department of Aviation. 

During the 30-minute in-terminal cook-off four finalists from across the country created an original recipe using any of the ingredients available to them from a shared pantry revealed at the start of the event.

At least one of the ingredients had to be something picked that day from O’Hare’s hydroponic Urban Garden.

The contest took place in front of an audience of invited guests and travelers on their way to or from their flights.

Each contestant had a cooking station to work at that included a knife tied to the table, a reminder that the event was taking place on the secure side of the terminal.

I was in the audience for this year’s competition and was pleased to see winners from past years (all women) paired up as mentors to this year’s contestant chefs and on stage to help out during the first few minutes of the contest.

Then each finalist went to work on their own, whipping up dishes that included a pasta, a unique take on shrimp and grits and a Brie Schnitzel.

A panel of local judges evaluated the contestants on their recipe, presentation, showmanship and, of course, the taste of their dish and crowned Greeley, Colorado resident DeAndre Smith as the winner.

His winning dish: a pan-seared chicken breast with a brown sugar glaze accompanied by pickled rainbow carrots with Fresno peppers, fresh lemongrass, ginger and rice wine vinegar, along with a yam purée with cumin and almonds and flash fried kale.

“I thought about what my dish would be before I came to the contest and was just hoping the ingredients I needed would be here,” Smith told me, “I had to make a few adjustments, but it worked out.”

Smith’s prize is roundtrip airfare for two, as well as a VIP experience for two to the James Beard Awards Gala in Chicago.

Even better: Smith’s dish will soon be featured on the menu of an HMSHost-operated restaurant at O’Hare.

How to enter the cooking contest at O’Hare Airport

Contests, Food, ,

The “Channel Your Inner Chef” culinary competition is back for another year at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

The HMSHost-sponsored competition gives amateur cooks, culinary students and anyone with a great recipe a chance to show off their favorite dishes and win some great prizes – including having their recipe featured at a restaurant at O’Hare Airport.

To enter: make a two-minute video of yourself preparing your favorite recipe, then upload your video by February 20, 2018 at ChannelYourInnerChef.com.

Five finalists will be selected based on the recipe, presentation, form, and showmanship.

Those finalists will win a trip to Chicago to compete in a live cooking showdown in front of an audience and a panel of judges at O’Hare Terminal 2 on March 20, 2018.

During the timed cook-off finalists will be asked to create an original recipe with ingredients revealed at the event and the winning dish will be featured on the menu of an HMSHost-operated restaurant at O’Hare.

The grand prize winner will also receive two roundtrip airline tickets for a flight within the continental U.S. and a VIP trip for two to attend the James Beard Awards Gala on May 7, 2018 at Lyric Opera of Chicago.

Deadline to enter is February 20, 2018. Full details at ChannelYourInnerChef.com.

 

More robots at an airport near you

Terrorism, Travel Gadgets, ,

Travelers will be running into robots at more airports as HMSHost adds Pepper, the humanoid robot, to the staff of more of its restaurants.

Her job: to give menu informaton and recommendations and generally entertain – or alarm – guests.

You may have encountered Pepper at her first assignment: the Pyramid Ale Taproom in Oakland International Airport. Now Pepper clones are also working hard at Avenue des Canadiens in Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport (where Pepper understands French or English),   the Washington Redskins Burgundy & Gold Club in Washington Dulles International Airport and at Point the Way Café in Los Angeles International Airport.

According to HMSHost, Pepper customizes her features for each airport so her interactions with travelers vary from location to location. In some airports she not only offers restaurant help, she helps travelers with directions to things at the airport, such as gates and the nearest restrooms.

If yu run into Pepper, let us know what the expereience is like. Cool or creepy?