Vino Volo

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.

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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.

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(Courtesy Vino Volo)

Good eats at the airport

The Luxaholics folks are making sure their readers are in the know about airports and air travel.

Last week they asked for my tips on making a coach seat more cushy and first-class-like.

This week, they’ve asked me to share a few tips on airport dining. I did my best, suggesting wine bars such as Vino Volo (various locations), the new One Flew South outpost at Hartsfield Jackson Atlanta International Airport (ATL), and a slew of others.  Moments after I sent along my tips (and walked out the door to the airport armed with a bag of leftovers from my fridge) this great article about airport dining by Matt Gross appeared in the New York Times.

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No whining: Vino Volo now at San Antonio International Airport

Vino Volo, which has been steadily opening soothing wine-tasting restaurants at airports around the country, officially opens another one today (November 12th) at San Antonio International Airport (SAT).

Coming soon: a second branch at Philadelphia International Airport and a new branch at Newark Liberty airport.