SPOKANE, Wash. – Major players in the Inland Northwest food scene will be touching down at the Spokane Airport starting in 2025.
“We are very many times the first and last impression that someone is going to have of Spokane,” said Spokane International Airport CEO Larry Krauter.
Krauter says that’s the main reason they’re starting the process of bringing in recognizable restaurants and brands to the airport.
“Because that’s Spokane, that’s our region,” Krauter said. “These are our folks, and it’s important to have that flavor in the terminal.”
Some of that local flavor will come in the form of some legitimate heavy hitters in the Spokane food and beverage scene, including The Yards Bruncheon, Zona Blanca, Thomas Hammer, Wiley’s Downtown Bistro, Iron Goat Brewing, Jack & Dan’s Tavern and more.
“My entire time being a chef and restaurateur I’ve wanted to have a restaurant in the airport,” said local chef Chad White with a chuckle. “Many of my friends who were on Top Chef with me have their own restaurants in airports across the country, so now it’s my turn.”
For someone as accomplished as White, that’s saying something. He’s bringing a spin-off of Downtown Spokane’s Zona Blanca Ceviche Bar to the airport’s C Concourse, called Zona Tortas & Tacos.
“I’m really excited about it,” White said. “I think it’s really great for Spokane, and introducing our tourists to our local flavor in Spokane, whether they’re flying in or flying out.”
“You have over four million visitors that come [through the airport], and to be able to have everyone come by here, walk by our restaurant and get a visual idea of it, and then to be able to go visit it downtown as well [is amazing],” said Adam Hegsted.
Hegsted is another extremely accomplished local chef, who’s bringing his restaurant The Yards Bruncheon to the airport’s A-B Concourse.
“I’m really excited to come into the airport a little early, grab a drink, grab some food and have it be some local high quality stuff,” Hegstead said.
Both Hegsted and White say this project speaks to the growth of Spokane’s food scene as a whole.
“We’ve seen some increased activity in the last 10 or 15 years of independent chefs and restauranteurs doing some high quality stuff that you see in other bigger cities,” Hegsted said.
“Having these local businesses really highlighted in our international airport says something about the city as a whole, what we have to provide to the guest as they’re traveling to Spokane for events, concerts, leisure or traveling through it to go to Coeur d’Alene or Montana and whatnot,” White said.
“This is an opportunity to put a smile on someone’s face, have a little bit of fun, a little bit of whimsy and also take a little pride in the community,” said Pat Murray.
Murray is the Deputy CEO of SSP America, the company newly contracted by the airport to operate and staff its restaurants.
“Over the next year and a half or so, you’re going to see one restaurant at a time start to come to life,” Murray said. “Those restaurants, of course, take architectural design, menu development, all kinds of things.”
They also will take a lot of training.
“Because the airport environment is unlike any other environment that a restauranteur has ever operated in,” Krauter, the airport’s CEO, said. “The security environment, the ways that the passengers flow and ebb during the day, the lengthy operational day, there’s a whole host of things that make it challenging.”
So, in the meantime, they’ll be serving up burgers and sandwiches from names travelers might not recognize, while planning and construction of the local brands gets underway, in order to meet a 2025 launch date.
“I think that’s the key to the customer experience,” Krauter said. “Expect to see new concepts starting to roll in over the next 18 months, depending on how fast or how slow we can get those things done, and we’ll continue to operate these interim concepts as long as we need to.”
For more information on the airport’s plan to introduce local restaurants, and for the full list of interim restaurants currently in place, click here.
