The dramatic improvement of airport dining in the last decade is even more impressive because of its breadth. It's not just the major hub airports that have great options. Smaller airports have surprisingly tasty choices too.

Want great barbecue? The airports in Memphis and Nashville have it. Local brewpubs? Cleveland, Salt Lake City, and Honolulu airports boast prestigious pints on tap. Logan Airport in Boston has great seafood joints, and you'll find great crab cakes at Baltimore/Washington International and an ocean of oysters at Raleigh-Durham. Well-crafted sandwiches and local specialties can be found anywhere you fly.

But there is a catch: What's local isn't exactly local. The explosion of great dining choices at airports around the nation isn't really fueled by local restaurateurs and microbreweries carving out their piece of the American Airport Dream.

The familiar local restaurant names you see are most likely franchises operated by gigantic airport food-service operations such as HMS Host and Delaware North. These companies and others are the airport master franchisees. To fill out the shopping and dining space, they've developed programs to adapt local restaurants, pubs, breweries, and even bakeries for the unique conditions at the airports.

"I could never afford to do a restaurant in an airport," the chef-owner of a well-known Midwestern bistro told me earlier this year. "So I franchise my name and hope for the best. To be honest, I'm impressed with the systems [my franchisee] created, and they are knocking out food I'm confident that people will like."

In other words, the name on the airport door isn't precisely what it seems. But compared to the Ghosts of Airport Food Past, it's this close to gastronomic heaven.

Click on a city or area for more:

• Austin
• Boston
• Chicago/Midway
• Cincinnati
• Cleveland
• Fort Lauderdale/Hollywood
• Honolulu
• Memphis
• Nashville
• Orlando
• Pittsburgh
• Phoenix
• Portland, Maine
• Portland, Oregon
• Raleigh/Durham
• Sacramento
• Salt Lake City
• San Francisco Bay Area (3 airports)
• St. Louis
• Tampa
• Washington, D.C. and Baltimore (3 airports)
• See more airports here

The Fine Print...

Got a favorite place at an airport? A picture of a airport joint or a special dish? Send it my way. I'd love to hear about what you're eating on the road. Please contact me at JBrancatelli@portfolio.com