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Leisure Travel ENJOYING LIFE WITH YOUR PLANE
Good Eats: On-The-Field Dining
By the time you get through flight training, you've heard of the $100 hamburger, that mythical magic meal that is as much an excuse to go bore holes in the sky as it is a chance to get together with other pilots and talk about all things aviation.
The “official” $100 hamburger book, compiled by John F. Purner and published by McGraw Hill, lists everything from on-field hotdog stands to four-star restaurants that are near enough to an airport that the FBO will either lend you a car or give you a ride. There is also the 100dollarhamburger.com web site, where subscribers can post notations about favorite, GA-friendly dining establishments so that others can share your discovery.
Just eating isn’t always enough, though. There are times in life when a hot dog or a bread bowl of chowder just won't do. There are times when you want and need ambiance, when you want to curl your feet around your chair legs and strap on an extravagant meal takes all afternoon to digest.
Maybe you’re heading cross-country and looking for a fine, on-field meal at one of your fuel stops. Or perhaps you're looking for an over-night stop where you can enjoy a worldclass steak and a fine Cabernet before being shuttled off to your hotel in the FBO’s minivan.
Whatever you’re looking for, you can enjoy an extraordinary experience within walking distance of your airplane. You just need to know where to look.
For example, the 56th Fighter Group restaurant on the field at Republic Airport in Farmingdale, New York, features fine dining just a few feet from the taxiway for runway 14. Whether you’re there for an excellent brunch with friends or a cozy dinner for two, you can enjoy homemade pot roast or old-fashioned meat loaf while watching your fellow pilots come and go at this mid-sized suburban airport. This restaurant isn’t stuffy but offers an upscale, fine-dining menu that mixes comfort food with an aviation theme.
The 56th Fighter Group is one of a chain of 12, aviation-themed, on-field restaurants operated by Specialty Restaurants Corporation of Anaheim, California (see specialty restaurants.com).
Cincinnati’s Lunken Field, known to those who’ve flown into it as “Sunken Lunken” is also home to the Sky Galley restaurant, a small, homey, yet completely respectable restaurant that offers great home-made meals in the main terminal building. There is even patio dining in warm weather, where you can sit under the stars, watch the planes come and go, and enjoy the house specialty of chicken livers that have been lightly dusted in flour and sauteed with bacon and onions.
Stella’s Skyline Cafe, located across the street from the New Smyrna Beach Municipal Airport in Smyrna Beach, Florida, is a chance to truly step back in time and dine at what was once an officer's club during the 1940’s and 1950’s. Slide behind a blue-cheese sirloin steak with baked potatoes and steamed vegetables, or enjoy the “Captain’s Platter” of grouper, shrimp, scallops and lobster, lightly breaded and deep-fried.
And for the ultimate steak-house experience on an airport property, visit Arnold Palmer Airport in Latrobe, Pennsylvania and stop by Denunzio’s Italian Chophouse in the terminal building. The restaurant, which serves excellent steaks, fine wines and a spectacular view of arriving and departing aircraft, even offers “weddings by the runway,” for couples looking for truly unique, aviation- themed nuptials.
If you know of a favorite, on field restaurant that offers date-quality meals accompanied by that romantic smell of spent 100LL, we’d love to hear about it on our Waypoints section at www.aviatorsguide.com. There you can share your fine, on-field dining experiences with other aviators, and maybe even see them in print in a future issue.
Until then, happy dining!
—Sean Fulton
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