Modern air travel is a generally a wretched experience, from the actual travel part right down to the time you spend in the airport waiting to endure your miserable, cramped flying experience. Even the most well-appointed airport is still a soulless wasteland of overpriced, undercooked nachos and AB InBev beers, perhaps with a bit of branding slapped on it, which offers little cheer before the cheerless experience of fighting for overhead bin space. Now, however, the dining portion of our local airport experience it is about to get a little more tolerable, as the Port of Seattle just announced the winning bids for its big dining and retail overhaul.
There is, of course, a Starbucks âUrban Marketâ and a smattering of other corporate shitâthis is the airport after allâbut the list represents a pretty significant shift away from the type of overpriced, miserably bad corporate concepts weâve accepted as one of the grim realities of air travel for far too long.
The new and improved SeaTac will feature such local favorites as the Stone House CafĂ©, Good Bar, Standard Bakery/Broadcast Coffee Roasters, Macrina Bakery, and Slate Coffee Roasters. Thereâs even a Sub Pop Records/Lil Woodyâs collaboration called Poppa Woodyâs in the works, to really hammer home the hyper-local hipness of it all.
âWeâre particularly pleased that so many local minority and small businesses see the benefit of opportunities at Sea-Tac Airport, will create new jobs, and help us share a Pacific Northwest sense of place with our passengers,â said Port of Seattle Commission President Tom Albro in the announcement, noting that the process was weighted to favor such applicants.
Given the emphasis on small, local, and minority-owned businesses, and the fact that the food from many of those businesses is orders of magnitude better than the lifeless nachos at the Alaska Lodge, this is news that should please everyone. At least if they don't confine all the minority-owned businesses to the airport concessions equivalent of a ghetto, that is.
There is, however, at least one party thatâs not so thrilled. The lease for Ivarâs Seafood was not renewed, and theyâre pretty salty about it. Salty enough to call out the Port on Twitter, in fact.
We're shocked and saddened that the @PortofSeattle isn't renewing our @SeaTacAirport lease. Tell them to #KeepIvars: https://t.co/vNGTtiNjvw https://t.co/RcnwRwmlnM
â Ivar's Clam (@IvarsClam) June 8, 2017
To be fair to Ivarâs, they are a local chain and they do have a semi-legitimate claim to being a Seattle icon, but I canât say Iâve ever found myself craving their dependable-but-unremarkable clam chowder before a flight. Perhaps thatâs because my usual fortification for a flight comes in the form of multiple boilermakers. But even if I was going to ingest something other than booze, Iâd take Good Barâs lovely pickled eggs over Ivarâs anyday.
However, to a certain type of Republican, the absence of Ivarâs is representative of the Port's ongoing assault on all that is good and true and virtuous in the state.
Running list of Seattle institutions the @PortofSeattle hates:
Sonics
Ivar's https://t.co/VRrQUgeBxL
â Drew Stokesbary (@stokesbary) June 8, 2017
Iâll go ahead and order you the âMake Seattle Great Againâ hats you're so obviously yearning for, bud. While weâre waiting, hereâs a lovely roast from the lovely Michael Maddux reminding him that, until Republicans stop attacking things that are actually virtuous, theyâve lost their license to complain about anything ever.
Running list of economic drivers that @WaHouseGOP hates:
Seattle
Educators
Seattle Educators
Seattle Taxpayers https://t.co/TV4BZJkhSl
â Michael Maddux (@michaeljmaddux) June 8, 2017
Oh, and if youâre similarly aggrieved about the loss of airport chowder options, Ivarâs started a petition about it.
.@IvarsClam launches online petition to keep on keeping clam @SeaTacAirport: #KeepIvars https://t.co/ivvr2Hxu6Z
â Rebekah Denn (@RebekahDenn) June 9, 2017
Questions of clam chowder loyalty aside, flying still sucksâitâs expensive, terrible for the environment, and the airport experience invariably leaves you feeling like livestockâbut this redevelopment lineup definitely makes it all suck a little less. And hopefully funnels some serious captive-audience cash into the pockets of minority business owners. Mega win!