Food

Military eat free at airports during Thanksgiving

Airports, Food, Free Stuff, Holidays, ,

THANKSGIVING coin postcard

During Thanksgiving week (Nov. 23 – 27), military personnel are invited to eat free in participating airport restaurants across the country operated by Paradies Lagardère (formerly Paradies) as part of its “Treat Our Troops” program.

Active and retired military personnel can show their military I.D. cards when ordering or checking out to receive a complimentary menu item and beverage at these restaurants:

• Sweet Auburn Market – Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport
• Blue Ridge Tavern – Asheville Regional Airport
• 4th Street Vine, McKenna’s on the Fly and the Long Beach Marche – Long Beach Airport
• Bar Symon – Pittsburgh International Airport
• Big Bowl, Magic Pan and Say Si Bon! – Denver International Airport
• Jammin’ Java, Smokewood American Grill and Say Si Bon! – Northwest Arkansas Regional Airport
• Say Si Bon! – Reagan Washington National Airport

Thanksgiving is also being celebrated at Washington’s Dulles and Regan airports with a “Turkey in the Terminal” promotion.

Turkey in the Terminal

At Dulles International Airport, six restaurants are participating in the promotion, including Bar Symon, which is offering a Gobbler Burger; Cosi, which is serving Turkey Chili; and the District Chophouse and Brewery, which is featuring a Smoked Turkey Club.

At Regan National Airport, four restaurants are featuring turkey-themed dishes, including Ben’s Chili Bowl, which is offering a Jumbo Turkey Dog.

Through Nov. 30, both airports are sharing a juicy turkey recipe from Chef Symon.

DFW gets first post-security 7-Eleven

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DFW 7-Eleven SNACK BOX

The first 7‑Eleven store located post-security in a U.S. airport terminal opened in late October at Dallas-Fort Worth Airport (DFW).

Open from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. in Terminal A, near Gate 25, the shop has all the usual 7-Eleven offerings as well as a special value-priced “snack pack” exclusive to the store containing a small bag of multi-grain pita chips, white cheddar cheese and salami sticks, a pouch of pitted green olives, a dried-fruit blend, thin chocolate cookies, Gummi bears and a butter mint.

While this is the first post-security 7-Eleven at a U.S. airport, it is not the first 7-Eleven convenience store in an airport.

There are pre-security 7-Eleven shops at Vancouver International Airport, Hong Kong International Airport and one at the Tom Bradley International Terminal at LAX Airport.

Snack Saturday: Tasting event at ATL

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ATLANTAHARTSFIELDCORNCORDEart

We all have our go-to foods when traveling.

Now Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL) is encouraging travelers to break out of their food ruts with a pre-security food festival that will be offering samplings from 32 restaurants at the airport.

The food fest takes place Tuesday, November 10th between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m., pre-security in the Domestic Terminal Atrium and participating concessionaires will include: Atlanta Chophouse, Atlanta Stillhouse, Café Intermezzo, Charley’s Philly Steaks, Chick-fil-A, Famous Famiglia, Goldberg’s, Grindhouse Killer Burgers, Lotta Frutta, Low Country, Mustard Seed BBQ, Shane’s Rib Shack, Sweet Auburn Market, Sweet Georgia’s Juke Joint, The Pecan, The Varsity, and Wolfgang Puck Fresh Express.

Hungry yet?

Booklest of ten tickets will be sold for $10 and each ticket will be good for one food sampling.

If you’re going to be at ATL that day, go ahead and get your Taste of Hartsfield-Jackson tickets ahead of time here.

ATL TASTE

WHAT:

New indoor food truck at LAX

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lax food truck

As promised, the rotating food truck concept in Terminal 4 at Los Angeles International Airport has rotated.

Operated by HMSHost, the L.A. Gourmet Street Truck inside the terminal looks like a food truck and was designed to house a parade of popular L.A. street vendor offerings.

Chef Roy Choi’s Kogi BBQ was the first to occupy the stand. Now Border Grill (which has another location in the Tom Bradley International Terminal) has taken over with a menu of tacos, quesadillas, ceviches and more.

Want to give the Border Grill a try? Although American Airlines flights operate out of Terminal 4, a same-day boarding pass and your government ID will get you past the security checkpoint – here or in any terminal.

Snack Saturday at Honolulu Int’l Airport

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This rainbow was my sendoff as I left my Honolulu hotel for a few hours of wandering around Honolulu International Airport earlier this week.

Honolulu Rainbow

Despite the construction underway as part of the long-promised ‘modernization’ program, I was happy to learn that the cultural gardens will remain at HNL and happy to see that souvenirs like these Spam-flavored macadamia nuts are still available.

More souvenirs from Honolulu Int’l Airport tomorrow on Souvenir Sunday.

HNL - spam macadamia nut

Hawaiian Airlines: why all the gum?

Aviation history, Food, Free Stuff, , , , ,

On Monday, journalists gathered at Hawaiian Airlines’ Honolulu headquarters for the carrier’s first global media day and the announcement that the airline is adding lie-flat seats to the premium cabins on its fleet of A330 aircraft.

hawaiian airline seats

During the event, refreshments were laid out for the attendees. And in with the coffee, water, fruit and trail mix were boxes filled with packs of Doublemint gum.

The gum seemed like an odd offering until it was explained that last November, when Hawaiian Airlines was celebrating the 85th anniversary of interisland passenger service, Doublemint gum was part of the festivities.

The reason: back in 1929, the first inflight amenity offered to passengers was a stick of Wrigley’s gum to help relieve ear pressure.

Hawaiian Airlines revived that tradition during its anniversary day celebration on November 11, 2015 by once again handing out Wrigley’s Doublemint gum to passengers (along with some other goodies) to the more than 12,000 passengers taking neighbor island flights that day.

Hawaiian gum offer

Hawaiian Airlines gum box

But not all the gum Wrigley’s sent to Hawaiian Airlines for the celebration was used.

Not by a longshot. Which is why Doublemint gum is now there on the refreshment table at a lot of Hawaiian Airlines events.

hawaiian airlines gumbox (3)

Souvenir Sunday at MSP Int’l Airport

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It’s Souvenir Sunday, the day to take a look at some of fun, inexpensive items you can find in the shops when you’re stuck at the airport.

Usually we seek out locally themed items, but this week’s treat is more of a surprise find: a stash of  ‘do-they-still-sell-those?’  Snoballs, Ho Hos and Twinkies spotted for sale at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

msp hoho_edited

And, for use by those who find themselves regretful after eating those snacks: complimentary treadmill desks:

MSP TREADMIILL

JetBlue adds a farm at JFK Airport

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We can’t quite call it a trend yet, but the urban farming movement is making headway at airports.

First there was O’Hare International’s aeroponic garden:

Aeroponic Garden/

Created in 2011, O’Hare’s aeroponic garden grows more than 1,000 plants – without soil – in 26 towers, producing herbs and vegetables used by some of the airport restaurants, including Tortas Frontera.

The indoor garden is on the mezzanine level of the O’Hare Rotunda Building, in Terminal 3 over the corridor to Concourse G.

Now JetBlue has joined the movement with a large outdoor garden in front of Terminal 5 at John F. Kennedy International Airport:

In addition to potatoes, JetBlue's T5 farm is growing herbs and produce for T5 restaurants and for local food pantries

The 24,000-square-foot T5 farm is growing produce, herbs and blue potatoes, the kind used to make the Terra Blues potato chips JetBlue offers as complimentary snacks to passengers.

Blue potatoes actually look purple when freshly picked

Potatoes, plus a wide variety of herbs and vegetables, are planted in raised beds made out of milk cartons bolted to the concrete.

The food grown will be used by restaurants in T5 and donated to area food pantries. And some of the blue potatoes may someday make it across the river to the New Jersey factory where the Terra Blues chips are now made out of blue potatoes grown on an organic farm in Maine.

Here are some more snaps from opening day at JetBlue’s T5 farm, which is located curbside, way to the left of the departure level doors. And here’s a link to a story I wrote about the farm for USA TODAY.

Helpful signs tell garden visitors what's growing in the milk crate beds.

JetBlue T5 farm manager Katrina Ceguera tending to the arugula

Shawn Connell, GrowNYC's program manager, with some of the first potatoes picked at the T5 farm.

October is Airport Restaurant Month

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Airport restaurant month

HMSHost’s Airport Restaurant Month is back again and that means that throughout the month of October you’ll find special seasonal fall tasting menus that include appetizers, main dishes and sides being offered in nearly 60 restaurants in North American airports.

Below is a list of airports where HMSHost restaurants will be participating. In many airports there are several restaurants to choose from. Enjoy!

• Albany International Airport
• Boston Logan International Airport
• Calgary International
• Charlotte Douglas International Airport
• Chicago O’Hare International Airport
• Clinton National Airport (Little Rock)
• Denver International Airport
• Edmonton International Airport
• General Mitchell International Airport (Milwaukee)
• George Bush Intercontinental Airport (Houston)
• Halifax Stanfield International Airport
• Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
• Honolulu International Airport
• JFK International Airport
• John Wayne Airport (Santa Ana)
• Kansas City International Airport
• Lambert – St. Louis International Airport
• Los Angeles International Airport
• Manchester-Boston Regional Airport
• McCarran International Airport (Las Vegas)
• Memphis International Airport
• Miami International Airport
• Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport
• Montréal–Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport
• Nashville International Airport
• Norfolk International Airport
• Oakland International Airport
• Ottawa International Airport
• Palm Beach International Airport
• Portland International Airport
• Raleigh-Durham International Airport
• San Diego International Airport
• T.F. Green International Airport (Providence)
• Tampa International Airport
• Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport
• Toronto Pearson International Airport