Airports Not an Excuse for Junk Food

Portfolio.com has compiled a list of some of the best (and healthiest) places to eat at airports around the country.  Joe Brancatelli , the reporter who compiled this list, refers to it as “dwell time” – the time business travelers inevitably face, either by getting through security too quickly or by being stricken with a delayed flight.   

He says that several airports have been using restaurant consultants and are trying to spruce up their dining options based on the their findings: 

• Breakfast is surprisingly popular in airports, (perhaps to store up energy for a long day of traveling?) yet major airports are lacking in comfortable sit-down restaurants in the early morning.   
• Upscale restaurants have not been doing well – “We may have overestimated our ability to convince travelers to sit down to have a multi-course meal just an hour or so before a flight,” one airport executive admitted to Brancatelli. “Finger foods like burgers, sandwiches, and wraps still outsell steaks and more complicated entrees. People want better food, not fancier food, and we may have confused the two.” 

The list includes restaurants within airports and those closeby in the following cities:

• Atlanta 
• Baltimore 
• Boston 
• Charlotte 
• Chicago/O’Hare 
• Chicago/Midway 
• Cleveland 
• Dallas/Fort Worth 
• Denver 
• Detroit 
• Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood 
• Honolulu 
• Houston/Intercontinental 
• Los Angeles 
• Miami 
• Minneapolis/St. Paul 
• New York, LaGuardia 
• New York, Kennedy 
• New York, Newark 
• Oakland 
• Philadelphia 
• Phoenix 
• Salt Lake City 
• San Diego 
• San Francisco 
• Seattle 
• Tampa 
• Washington, Reagan National 
• Washington, Dulles 

For a complete list of the restaurants Brancatelli recommends in the country’s busiest airports, see “Fly Right, Eat Well: The Best Airport Dining Options.”