Food

Travel Tidbits from here and there

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Macaroni and cheese is a classic comfort food and a dish many people turn to when they are stressed.

So where better to open a restaurant with a full menu of mac and cheese dishes than in an airport?

San José Mineta International Airport (SJC) is now home to the first airport mac and cheese restaurant: San José Mac + Cheese Kitchen.

Located in Terminal B, across from Gate 19, the restaurant is serving up a Signature Mac along with a wide variety of customizable mac and cheese dishes with cheddar cheese sauce, 5-cheese white sauce, grilled chicken, smoked bacon, and BBQ pulled pork.

The menu also includes Grilled Mac + Cheese Sandwiches, Breakfast Mac + Cheese Burritos, and a full bar.

Very comforting!

More airport comfort

Speaking of comfort, we spotted some comforting touches at South Carolina’s Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport (GSP) Sunday morning as we made our way to a very early flight.

First, we spotted these very comfy chairs right by the baggage claim carousels.

Then, once through security, we made our way down a hallway filled with useful – and tempting – vending machines.

We’ve seen the Fuel Rod machine that dispenses handy fully-charged chargers in quite a few airports. But the machine that’s ” a carwash for glasses and jewelry,” and the one that dispenses tins filled with licorice aren’t as common. Yet.

And how’s this for service?

We saw a gate agent sprint off towards the security checkpoint and wondered what was up. In just a few minutes she came running back with a young man in tow who would have missed his flight had she not rushed over and hustled him to the front of the security checkpoint line.

Sights & sips: Seattle-Tacoma Int’l Airport

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Two lounges and a restaurant to love at SEA Airport

Who says airports are no fun?

The Stuck at the Airport food and drink team joined a food and drink tour of some swanky spots at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) and found plenty to love.

Our tour included a stop at Alaska Airline’s recently renovated lounge on Concourse D, the oh-so-swanky American Express Centurion Lounge on the mezzanine of the Central Terminal area, and Salty’s at the SEA restaurant, also in the Central Terminal.

The Alaska Airlines lounge on Concourse D has 50% more seats and upgraded amenities, including loungers, a barista station and expanded hot food options.

Thankfully, the make-your-own pancake machine is still onsite.

We’ve been waiting for a chance to get a look inside the American Express Centurion Lounge. And it is a ‘wow’ as we’ve heard.

Besides being beautiful, and beautifully laid out, the lounge has a wellness/coffee bar, a cocktail bar, plenty of relaxation areas and work spaces, two phone rooms for privacy, and loads of artwork, including a collection of photographs of musicians and other notables who hail from Washington, including Kurt Cobain and Bill Gates.

The food offerings are top notch and include a menu curated by Chef Kristi Brown. She’s a James Beard Award semifinalist and owner of Seattle’s Communion restaurant, which serves “Seattle Soul” cuisine using fresh local ingredients.

And, over at Salty’s at the SEA, an outpost of the much-loved Salty’s seafood grill on Seattle’s Alki Beach, passengers can order from a menu filled with Pacific Northwest seafood items and creative cocktails AND get great views of take-offs and landings.

Here’s a short video of our some of the sips, sights, and bites from our tour.

National Ice Cream Month is around the corner

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July is National Ice Cream Month.

And the Stuck at the Airport team is team is getting ready for the holiday by taste-testing its way through this six-pack of Greater’s Ice Cream that arrived at the office.

So far, the limited-edition Hot Honey Crunch is our favorite.

We’ve been told that ice cream eaten at an airport has no calories.

We SO want to believe that, because a cup or a cone is often our go-to treat when we’re waiting for a flight.

We’re putting a call out for great airport ice cream shops so we can do a proper round-up once the holiday month gets underway.

So please leave a note in the comments section about your favorite places to get a scoop or a sundae at an airport.

(Here’s a link to the airport ice cream deals and celebrations we found last year)

In the meantime, here’s a deal for you at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) from Greater’s.

The Cincinnati-based, family-owned company started in 1870 and is well-known for handcrafting its ice cream 2½ gallons at a time. Back in 2016, they opened a storefront at CVG on Concourse A that is, as you might imagine, very popular with passengers.

For those passing through CVG this summer, we’ve heard from Greater’s that the airport shop will be carrying peach ice cream now through mid-August and offering the limited-edition strawberry sorbet starting July 1. Key lime pie ice cream will be in the shop starting August 1.

Better yet: If you download Graeter’s app and sign up for their “Sweet Rewards” program, you’ll get an offer for a free cone.

During National Ice Cream Month, Sweet Rewards members are promised a variety of other offers as well.

Where do you get ice cream when you’re Stuck at the Airport? Please leave a note in the comments section below.

(Photo courtesy Nationa Archives)

Get Mushroom Coffee at SEA Airport

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Mushrooms are very ‘in’ right now. And certain types of mushrooms are said to be adaptogenic, providing a wide range of beneficial effects to our bodies.

Adding adaptogenic mushrooms to coffee is also very ‘in’ right now.

And Seattle-based start-up, Wunderground, says its coffee containing adaptogenic mushrooms can help balance stress and cortisol, improve focus, boost whole system immunity, and improve mood.

Travelers passing through Seattle-Tacoma Internatinal Airport (SEA) now have a chance to check those claims out.

A new pop-up shop on Concourse C at SEA, Wunderground @ SEA Airport, is offering complimentary samples of all its mushroom coffees along with sales of their packaged coffee and tea products.

Wunderground is also offering discounts on their gift bundles and has shelves stocked with mushroom merch and mushroom-themed cupcakes from Seattle’s Cupcake Royale, which was also founded by Wunderground Founder & CEO Jody Hall.

“Most [people] wrinkle their nose at the idea of coffee with mushrooms,” Hall told Stuck at the Airport. “But when they try ours, they’re in love with how delicious it tastes, not to mention how it makes them feel better.”

During May, Wunderground will not only be providing complimentary samples of its mushroom coffee, but also giving 3 complimentary travel-sized packets of its instant coffees and tea to anyone who signs up for the mailing list.

We suggest pairing your complimentary mushroom coffee sample with a complimentary sample of chocolate from Seattle Chocolate, across the hall from Wunderground.

Mushroom Coffee at Your Airport?

Hall says Wunderground’s target audience is high stress, high performance’ people.

And airports are an ideal place to find those people.

So if Wunderground becomes a permanent fixiture at SEA, look for it to expand to other airports.

“I worked at Starbucks back in the early days, when we only had 4 markets,” said Hall. “Someone had the brilliant idea to put Starbucks at the airport and it paved the way to drive US market expansion. I see a similar path with Wunderground.”

PHL Airport Celebrates the Philly Cheesesteak

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Friday, March 24, is National Cheesesteak Day. And Philadelphia International Airport (PHL) is celebrating with a weeklong tribute of specials and giveaways.

Through March 24, the promo code “CHZSTK23” offers $3 off a cheesesteak or cheesesteak-inspired menu item from participating locations at OrderAtPHL.com.

Then on National Cheesesteak Day, Friday, March 24, PHL travelers will be treated to free cheesesteak samples from Chickie’s & Pete’s, Geno’s Steaks, Jack Duggan’s Pub & Restaurant and Passyunk Steaks. Samples of Pepsi Zero Sugar, prizes, and other surprises are also on the menu.

The “Finale Celebration” will be hosted by Lauren Rei with Wooder Ice and a live DJ from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the stage between terminals B and C.

Enter the Cheesesteak Sweepstakes

In or out of the airport, cheesesteak fans should enter the Pepsi and cheesesteak sweepstakes by March 24.

The prize is, you guessed it, cheesesteaks and Pepsi Zero Sugar for a year delivered in the form of $7,300 worth of gift cards.

Cool Airport Amenity: Smoothie Vending Machines at YVR Airport

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Here’s a great, new airport amenity we hope to see at other airports very soon.

In what may be a first for North American airports, Vancouver International Airport (YVR) has partnered with the Trendi Smoothies company to host smoothie vending machines at the airport.

The 24-hour vending machines offer sippable snacks that are nutritious and eco-smart because the smoothies are made from rescued fruit and vegetables.

Each machine can blend up a smoothie in about a minute. Flavor options include Groovy Guava, Mango Tango, and Strawburst; each with no added sugars or preservatives.

But what are ‘rescued’ fruit and vegetables?

They’re imperfect foods that aren’t quite pretty enough to send to retail stores but are otherwise just fine to eat.

Traveling to or through YVR soon? Look for the smoothie vending machines at Gates B13, B27, and B28 in domestic departures and D62 and E74 in US and international departures.

Voodoo Doughnuts Lands at Denver Int’l Airport

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Doughnut fans rejoice!

Good things do come in pink boxes at an airport.

If you’re a fan of Portland-based Voodoo Doughnuts, you know what’s up when you spot people flying with a pink box carefully balanced on their laps.

And if you just love the idea of having a decadent doughnut as a treat when you travel, you’re in luck.

Voodoo Doughnuts has opened its first airport location. And it is at Denver International Airport (DEN) on the Concourse B mezzanine.

Voodoo Doughnuts is credited with creating the gourmet doughnut category way back in 2003 with doughnuts such as the Bacon Maple Bar, a Voodoo Doll doughnut, a doughnut made with Captain Crunch cereal, a Dirt Doughnut, and the Pepto Bismol Doughnut – which the FDA nixed.

Voodoo Doughnut now offers more than 50, often outrageous, doughnut creations in locations in Oregon, Texas, Colorado, at Hollywood’s Universal City Walk and Orlando Universal Walk.

Fans of the doughnuts often bring pink doughnut-filled boxes of these treats with them as gifts when they travel, And they have to figure out how to get them through airport security.

Now there’s the option of indulging in a Voodoo Doughnut or buying a box to go at Denver Int’l Airport. To celebrate, the opening of this first airport location, a planeload of United Airlines passengers was treated to a doughnut festival.

Airport Garden Helps Feed its Community

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Here’s a great story that wonderfully illustrates and reminds us that airports aren’t just places to fly in and out from.

Each airport also plays many roles in the local community.

Some airports collect loose change from travelers and send it along to local charities. Others organize programs that collect perfectly good unsold packaged food items from airport vendors and pass them along to local food banks.

And since 1997 Canada’s Winnipeg Richardson International Airport (YWG) has been hosting a Harvest Garden that grows thousands of pounds of vegetables each year for local food banks.

And the airport just shared that last week more than 5,000 pounds of potatoes, beets, carrots, and onions were pulled from the airport’s Harvest Garden and donated to Harvest Manitoba. The non-profit sends the vegetables out to 325 food banks and agencies in the province.

Pretty impressive, right?

More impressive, since the Harvest Garden started in 1997, the airport has donated 72,270 pounds of vegetables. That’s enough food to help provide a meal to 100,000 families in need.

According to the Winnipeg Airports Authority, which operates YWG, over the past 25 years, the airport garden has grown from a few rows in size to 4,000 square feet. And employees from nearly every department across the organization pitch in each summer to help seed, weed, and harvest the garden.

Have a great community story to share about your airport? Let us know.

We all scream for ice-cream

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July is National Ice-Cream Month

July is National Ice-Cream Month and Sunday was National Ice Cream Day.

And while no one really needs a special reason to enjoy ice cream when traveling, here’s how some airports and airlines marked National Ice Cream Day. Plus some bonus ice cream images from the National Archives.

Boys eating ice cream. Courtesy National Archives

“People have been eating and making ice cream innovations since cold storage became more commercially affordable,” the National Archives reminds us. “Early founders George Washington and Thomas Jefferson regularly enjoyed ice cream, and it was a featured dessert at James Madison’s inauguration ball in 1813.”

Ice cream-related inventions have proliferated over time, “as ice cream manufacturers and other dairy businesses constantly tinkered with new inventions to help mix, freeze, store, and transport ice cream while keeping its flavor and temperature perfect for the market.”

Virtual wait-lists for airport dining

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You’ve no doubt heard or read stories about how crowded airports are right now and the long lines at security checkpoints, and at airport coffee shops and restaurants.

Some airports have created virtual reservation systems for checkpoint times.

Now HMSHost, which operates food and beverage outlets at more than 120 airports, is using technology to ease the hassle of sitting down for an airport meal.

The company is partnering with restaurant platform OpenTable to power virtual waitlists at over a dozen HMSHost airport restaurant locations in 7 airports nationwide. 

At participating restaurants, guests can join the waitlist online via QR Codes or in person with the host. Diners will be notified via SMS text message when their table is ready.

Up next, the partnership will enable reservations in advance, with the goal or making airport dining part of the travel booking process. 

HMSHost restaurants featuring OpenTable reservations include:

Charlotte-Douglas International Airport

Summer House Santa Monica

1897 Market

Denver International Airport

Denver Chophouse

Great Divide Brewing

John Glenn Columbus International Airport

Hangar 815

Las Vegas: Harry Reid International Airport

California Pizza Kitchen

Chili’s

Jose Cuervo Tequileria

Las Vegas Chophouse & Brewery 

PGA Tour Grill

Sammy’s Beach Bar & Grill

Sammy’s Woodfired Pizza

Los Angeles: LAX International Airport

Point the Way Café

Minneapolis/St. Paul International Airport

Chili’s

St. Louis Lambert International Airport

Mike Shannon’s Grill