LGB Reimagines Airport Dining • the Hi-lo

Jill Kiney Pharis of Sweet Jill’s Bakery oversees cinnamon roll production at her LGB location. Photos by Sarah Bennett.

Most reviews of the newly constructed state-of-the-art concourse at Long Beach Airport focus on its generous free wifi, sleek, resort aesthetics and LEED-certified construction that includes rooftop solar panels, large windows that allow full views of the runway and an open-air palm court that fills the space between its two wings with native plants and a boardwalk that evokes the vibes of a beach only a short drive away.

But one of the best amenities of the new LGB is its food, something travelers at lesser airports don’t even think about until they are forced to buy a stale pre-made sandwich or try and remember which Jamba Juice flavor they actually like in that interminable hour between check-in and boarding.

As was annouced months prior to the concourse’s opening, all of the food and beverage providers at LGB are local businesses, from Belmont Shore’s Polly’s for coffee to McKenna’s On the Bay for burgers. What was not announced, however, is the care and dedication that the concessionaire company Paradies Shops has taken to ensure that meals behind the TSA checkpoint are prepared exactly as mouth-watering as their off-site originals.

Business owners like Jill Kiney Pharis–whose pastries from Sweet Jill’s Bakery are sold alongside Polly’s coffee at two concourse walk-ups–spent weeks at the airport training Paradies staff to make food just as it is done at the original locations, which in Pharis’ case included having them use the same plastic syrup dispenser to pour frosting over trays of freshly baked cinnamon rolls. In the owners’ absence, the same attention to quality and detail is carried out by the Joe Muth, who brings decades of restaurant food experience to his role of LGB’s Executive Chef.

Yes, Long Beach’s municipal airport has an executive chef. And he purchases burger buns from Rossmoor Bakery, sushi-grade fish from an L.A. importer and makes his burger patties fresh every day from a mix of chuck and short rib purchased from Pat LaFrieda, an East Coast meat purveyor known for providing choice cuts to some of the country’s finest restaurants.

The experience of getting the food is also unique. Travelers have the choice of sitting on the outdoor patios for McKenna’s on the Fly or 4th Street Vine and being served by a wait staff or wandering through the cafeteria-style Marché and getting it themselves. But prehaps the most ingenious way to order food at LGB is through the revolutionary iPad Bar located in the middle of the north concourse, where a custom app allows interested parties to make an order that comes delivered to them gateside on not on plastic mall food court trays but hotel room service trays lines with cloth placemats.

Oh yeah, and somehow food prices inside the airport remain the same as they are outside of it, despite the architecture and atmosphere being more like that of the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas than a regional transportation hub.

Trading traditional lackluster airport grub for restaurant-quality meals from local eateries might be a relatively new concept–Paradies operates food concessions at only five American airports–but it’s one that is catching on fast. The day before LGB’s new concourse opened to passengers for the first time in December, the Los Angeles World Airports announced that it, too, would be including L.A. brands as part of its massive plans for the new Tom Bradley International Terminal build-out.

Here’s to hoping even more airports take note of Long Beach’s trend-setting concessionaires, all of which ensure the flight is only part of the trip. And until then, we’re still rooting for a locals-only free day when plane tickets are not necessary to enjoy one of Long Beach’s newest and most exclusive dining districts.

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