Bars

Treats for dogs and people at Lambert -St. Louis International Airport

Lambert-St.Louis International Airport has joined the growing list of airports that have opened “rest areas” for pets and service animals.

stl-dog-park1

STL’s two gated pet parks are each 400 square feet, with park benches, trash cans, plastic clean-up mitts and fire hydrants.  The Main Terminal park has synthetic turf and is on the upper level, just outside exit MT-6. The East Terminal pet park has natural grass and some tree shade and is located outside baggage claim on the lower level

stl-winebar

STL also has some new perks for people: two new pre-security dining venues.

Brioche Dorée Café serves salads, sandwiches, pastries, and other casual menu items. Missouri Vineyards, serves wines from local boutique vineyards (who knew?) and beyond.  In addition to a menu that includes fruit & cheese plates and other small bites, Missouri Vineyards will have regular Thursday wine tasting events.

Airport pub crawl: sure path to jet-lag AND a hangover

Jet-lag (when you’re “internally desychronized”) is no fun. It’s vexing when you’ve arrived in a new city at 6 a.m. and can’t keep your eyes open.  It’s maddening when it jostles you awake at 3 in the morning.

There are plenty of jet-lag remedies floating around out there. Some work. Others work only if you say a special chant.   One way to insure jet-lag, as well as a hangover: an airport pub crawl that includes some – or all – of the spots in this Forbes Traveler article: America’s Best Airport Bars.

Recommended spots include:  Vino Volo wine bars in Washington, D.C, Seattle, Detroit and other cities;  Cibi Bistro and Wine Bar at PHL,  DEN’s New Belgium Hub Bar & Grill, the Woodford Reserve Bar & Grill at the Louisville, Kentucky Airport, re:vive at JFK’s Terminal 5,  Laurelwood Brewing Company pubs at PDX, and the Shipyard Brewing Company at Maine’s Portland Int’l Jetport.

Also on the list: the Sweetwater Draft House at ATL, the Heineken Lounge at EWR,  and Squatters Pub and the Wasatch Brew Pub, both at the Salt Lake City airport.

Drink up, but bring aspirin.

beer-mug

Beer here: where to get all hopped up at the airport

A toast to Claire Walter at Travel Babel for pointing us to the in-depth Beer Lover’s Airport Guide by Jerome Greer Chandler over at CheapFlights.com.

By all means print it out and tuck this guide into your carry-on.  That way, if you’re stuck at the airport in Portland, Seattle, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Denver or any of the 20 airports listed in the guide, you’ll know who’s pouring micro-brews where.

beer-mug

Travel tip from a wine lover

The complimentary drink choices  offered to business and first class cabin passengers usually include a variety of top notch wines.

Not so in coach.  If you want wine, you pay for it. And the choices are never  that exciting: red or white.

But where there’s a will there’s a way. And a wine… as Harris Meyer describes in a recent Crosscut blog post: How to drink your favorite wine on a plane.

The not technically-legal key:  “take-out” from airport wine bars such as DFW’s La Bodega and Vino Volo (at close to a dozen airports),  a TSA-approved corkscrew, and a couple of clean Starbucks cups.

You didn’t hear it from me.

vino-volo

(Courtesy Vino Volo)