Here’s hoping you have a good long layover at O’Hare or Midway International Airports coming up – and that you’re hungry when you land.
Both airports are participating in Chicago Restaurant Week with a special Airport Restaurant Week event running from January 30 – February 12, 2015.
50 restaurant at O’Hare and 20 at Midway will highlight their house specialties and feature dishes that are not regularly offered on the menu – such as Deep Dish CheeseCorn from Garrett Popcorn Shops (only at O’Hare!) and Chicken Kebobs at Midway’s Pegasus on the Fly.
In many spots there will also be discounts offered on certain menu items as well.
They’re back. They’re hungry. And they’re not picky eaters.
A herd of 37 goats, sheep, llamas and burros have been hired by Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport to munch on poison ivy, noxious weeds and other unwanted vegetation along creeks, streams and roadway right-of-ways on airport property.
Part of the Chicago Department of Aviation’s (CDA) Sustainable Vegetation Management initiative for O’Hare, the critters are on loan from Settlers Pond, an animal rescue facility in Beecher, Ill.
A herd of about 25 animals was on duty last year from July through November eating unwanted vegetation. That helped the airport cut back on the use of emission-producing equipment and limited the use of toxic herbicides on some of the airport’s 8,000 acres of land.
This year, up to 120 acres of O’Hare land difficult to maintain with traditional landscaping equipment has been set aside for all-they-can-eat grazing. The herd, which spends evenings in transport vans nearby the grazing land, will stay at O’Hare until the weather gets too cold for the animals to access vegetation.
As before, all the sites where the animals graze are in areas far away from or separated from the airfield by security fencing.
Which means we shouldn’t be hearing any stories about take-offs or landings being delayed at O’Hare by a jackass running around on the runway.
At least two other U.S. airports have had animals help out with landscape management.
San Francisco International Airport has a herd of goats come by each year to assist with weed control and in 2012 a herd of 91 sheep and 10 goats participated help control vegetation at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport.
(My story about weed-eating at O’Hare International Airport first appeared on USA TODAY)
This week Chicago’s O’Hare Airport is celebrating the completion of a two-year, much-needed, $26 million project to renovate and update International Terminal 5.
Here’s a splashy video about the terminal put together by Westfield, the terminal developer, followed by a story I put together about the completion of the terminal renovations that posted first on the Runway Girl Network.
Before the terminal upgrade began, just about all of the dining and retail options in T5 were located pre-security, which made it hard for travelers to feel at ease taking advantage of any dining and shopping option before passing through the security checkpoint and heading for their flights.
Now it’s a completely different story:
The Goddess & Grocer, a locally-owned and operated gourmet deli working in partnership with Metropolis Coffee Company, a local, small batch coffee roaster, is now the main pre-security dining venue. On the menu: deli sandwiches, ready-made salads, handmade chocolates, cookies and other desserts that can be eaten there – with friends or family members who have come to the airport to see you off – or packed to take with you on the plane.
There a completely reconfigured TSA checkpoint that’s “more streamlined and easier to get through,” said Karen Pride of the Chicago Department of Aviation and, just beyond that, a 10,000 square-foot, pass-through duty free shop like those that now seem standard in many European airports.
Inside the terminal, travelers will find a wide variety of new restaurants and retail shops, including many Chicago brands. There are also redesigned public spaces and many welcome new amenities.
The airport’s branch of XpresSpa is here offering massages, manicures, pedicures, facials and hot shaves. A wide variety of bath and body care products are also available for purchase and include Chicago-based Abbey Brown Soaps and the Beelove line of lip balm and skin care products, which are made with some of the honey from an apiary on airport property.
The restrooms pre and post-security have all been updated and there is now plenty of lounge-style seating throughout the common areas equipped with power outlets and USB ports for charging devices.
Expanded dining options include a food court, or “dining lounge,” with three quick-serve outlets: Wow Bao (Asian dishes with modern flair), Urban Olive (fresh salads) and R.J. Grunts Burger & Fries, and, for sit-down meals, a branch of the popular downtown Chicago restaurant, Hub 51.
Other food outlets in the terminal now include Big Bowl (potstickers, noodle and stir fry dishes, salads, etc. with an emphasis on locally-sourced ingredients), Tocco (a wine bar and Italian eatery), a branch of Tortas Frontera by Chicago chef Rick Bayless (popular elsewhere in the airport) and Kofe powered by Intelligentsia (gourmet coffee and tea, light fare).
Shoppers will be able to browse the offerings from Salvatore Ferragamo, Michael Kors, Vosge Haut-Chocolate, I Love Chicago, Swatch, Emporio Armani, Hudson (newsstand and travel essentials) and others.
The new shops, retail outlets and fresh amenities at Chicago’s International Terminal 5 have been gently rolling out during the past two years. But now that the final pieces are in place, there does seem like there’s plenty to celebrate and enjoy.
(My story about O’Hare Airport’s Terminal 5 upgrade first appeared on the Runway Girl Network.)
Chicago’s O’Hareand Midwayairports will be celebrating St. Patrick’s Day with Celtic dance and musical entertainment, as well as “Shamrock Specials” at airport restaurants and shops.
Today – (Thursday, March 13) from 5 to 6 p.m., dancers from the Sheila Tully Academy of Irish Dance will perform at O’Hare International Terminal 5, post security and just outside of the new duty free store. At Midway, Catherine O’Connell will sing with musicians at Reilly’s Daughter, located in the Midway Boulevard Food Court at 5 p.m.
The fun continues Friday, March 14 with performances at O’Hare and Midway by the Trinity Irish Dancers.
Here’s the schedule for O’Hare:
Terminal 1: 6:10 to 7 p.m. Lower level baggage claim near Door 1E
Terminal 2 : 5 to 6 p.m. Post security next to Wicker Park Seafood and Sushi
Terminal 3: 5 to 6 p.m. Post security near the entrance to the L Concourse
Terminal 5: 6:10 to 7 p.m. in the lower level meeter/greeter area across from the Information Booth
At Midway, the dancers will perform from 4 to 6 p.m. post security in Concourse A near the Battle of Midway exhibit.
And on St. Patrick’s Day, Monday, March 17, concessions throughout both airports will offer “Shamrock Specials” that will include green beer, green kettle corn and discounts on green merchandise and Celtic jewelry.
A third branch is scheduled to open this spring in the H/K Corridor, near the American Airlines Admirals Club.
Services on the menu include manicures, pedicures, massages and more.
And, if you’re flying on Virgin America out of San Francisco between March 4- June 30, you can get free ice-cream – on the ground.
As part of a roll-out for the new menu for first-class passengers on the airline’s long-haul business flights between San Francisco and Los Angeles to Newark, New York, Boston and Washington National Airport, the airline is offering travelers in any cabin a free scoop of Humphry Slocombe’s ice cream.
The San Francisco-based ice-cream maker has whipped up three ice cream flavors for Virgin American – Butter By Moodlight, Red-Hot Banana and Coconut Blond Ambition – and Virgin America is inviting the public to vote via Twitter on which should be the airline’s signature flavor served on board.
Free tastings took place at San Francisco International Airport on Feb. 20, but from March 4 – June 30, anyone showing a Virgin America boarding pass at either of the Humphry Slocombe’s two San Francisco locations (The Ferry Building & Mission) can get a free scoop.
In addition to the new first-class menu, Virgin America is also updating its First Class service settings with hot towel and linen table service available on all flights.
