Setting the Bar
Eating Well on the Fly
Recent Columns
-
Airline Madness Hits Europe
Feb 08 201212:01 am EDT -
A Fourth Musketeer in the Skies?
Feb 01 201212:01 am EDT -
The Must-Have Business Travel Apps
Jan 25 201212:01 am EDT -
Travel's Silly Season
Jan 18 201212:01 am EDT -
The Best Airport Hotels Outside the United States
Jan 11 201212:01 am EDT -
The Road Warrior's Guide for 2012
Jan 04 201212:01 am EDT -
The 2012 Airport Dining Guide: Small in Size, Big in Taste
Dec 28 201112:01 am EDT -
The 2012 Airport Dining Guide: Where to Eat Before You Fly
Dec 21 201112:01 am EDT -
The Backscatter Backstory
Dec 14 201112:01 am EDT -
Hotel Histrionics
Dec 07 201112:01 am EDT
The good news in business travel? It's easier than ever to drown your sorrows at the airport with a nice glass of wine, an artisan beer, or a good cocktail.
After decades of running dreary, depressing bars of last resort, airports around the world are suddenly bursting with charming and well-stocked wine bars. Dozens of airports have convivial branches of local brewpubs that serve up some of the nation's best and most inventive brews. Airports have even become testing grounds for new dining and drinking concepts, many of them branded with prestigious names in the liquor world. And since travelers seem willing to pay for better booze and more elegant surroundings, airport bars that have gone upscale are able to charge higher prices for booze and pub grub than ever before.
There may not be a specific moment when airport drinking began to change from nowhere-else-to-go, time-killing diversion to an entertaining and edifying experience, but we have a pretty good idea where the trend started. A decade ago, a place called the Cibo Bistro and Wine Bar opened at Philadelphia International Airport. Suddenly, drinking at the airport didn't seem so depressing.
"Why not have a great glass of wine at the airport? There's no reason why you can't," says Rick Blatstein, the ebullient chief executive of OTG Management, the company behind Cibo. "Travelers know what they want. But food-service operators at airports were used to treating their customers like prisoners."
Cibo (the Italian word for "food") is the very model of a modern airport drinking establishment. There are 32 wines available by the glass; the atmosphere and menu cheerily mimic that of a genuine Italian enoteca. Prices range from $6 to $25 a glass; Blatstein says the average pour costs $10 to $12. Eighty percent of the customers order food too.
There are now two Cibo wine bars in Philadelphia and branches at New York's LaGuardia Airport and Washington's Reagan National Airport. (Blatstein also uses the Cibo moniker for an airport-specific chain of upscale take-away markets.) OTG, which has food and beverage operations at eight U.S. airports, is readying new dining and drinking concepts for the JetBlue Airways terminal that is due to open in September at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport.
Cibo's success helped lay the groundwork for Vino Volo, which opened its eighth location last week at Detroit's Metro Airport. Vino Volo (roughly translated as "wine flight" in Italian) has been wowing travelers since its first branch opened at Washington's Dulles Airport in 2005. It serves wine by the glass and small plates of food that pair nicely with the wine, and even sells bottles at retail.
Comments
If you are commenting using a Facebook account, your profile information may be displayed with your comment depending on your privacy settings. By leaving the 'Post to Facebook' box selected, your comment will be published to your Facebook profile in addition to the space below.




