Airport Drinking
Posted In Beer
A guy walks into a bar wearing a t-shirt that says “Cameltoe.” No, this isn’t the beginning of a bad joke; it’s the start of my last trip to San Diego. I could have sat there drinking, pondering if he was for or against it. Seriously, what statement are you trying to make? Does the back say “now accepting applications”? Either way, I wasn’t drunk enough to be so philosophical. And besides, I was already pondering why it is so difficult to find a good beer on draft in any airport.
<spoiler alert, spoiler alert>Maybe it’s not- check out my list below for decent draft choices at airports.
Philly (PHL) is my (current) home base and have a few choices for drinking. The Jet Rock bars (terminals B, C, D, and F) offer between 24 and 48 taps with at least 10-15 local craft drafts. There was nothing spectacular but I’ll take a Troegs Hopback or Dock Street Rye over the typical “BMC” (Bud, Miller, Coors) draft list any day. BTW, they will pour you a 22oz. but you can request a pint instead. And as the Cameltoe fan discovered, even a pint of Bud will set you back $6 or more. I think he settled on water. But shelling out $9-10 for a beer makes screaming babies, drunk pilots, and gloved cavity searches much more tolerable.
So OK, I’m covered flying out of Philly, but a layover in Houston on the way to San Diego proved to be a waste of time when it came to finding a good beer. After a first class passenger had a heart attack, our plane made an unscheduled stop in Atlanta to wheel him off to the hospital (he’d have better luck finding a doctor going around the baggage carousel), and I ran to my connecting gate in Houston just in time to see the plane push off, spending the next few hours on a standby list walking back and forth between terminals C and E peering into the windows of every bar/restaurant around simply to end up with a headache.
SD airport has Karl Strauss locations in Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. Their beer won’t blow you away and you’re more likely to see just their standard beers on tap, but there are some solid choices such as Red Trolley and Tower 10 IPA. If you can find a barrel aged seasonal on draft, you might have some better luck. But on my return trip, flying through Dallas on the way back to Philly offered another dry desert expanse of craft beer choices- no oasis for me. You get Dos Equis or Shiner Bock. Note to self: no more flights connecting through Texas.
So after stumbling around these airports cursing out each draft list like a Blithering Idiot, I guess I’ll have to choose my stopover airports more wisely. Here are some more airports (in alpha order) I wouldn’t mind connecting through:
Atlanta Hartsfield-Jackson (ATL) Airport: Sweetwater Draft House in Terminal B with Sam Adams in Terminals A and C
Baltimore Washington (BWI) Airport: DuClaw Brewing in Main Terminal
Boston’s Logan (BOS) Airport: Sam Adams in Terminals C and E, Cisco Brewers in Terminal B and Harpoon in Terminal A
Chicago O’Hare (ORD) Airport: Goose Island Brewing at Terminals 1 and 2
Cleveland Hopkins (CLE) Airport: Great Lakes at Concourse A, Cleveland Brews in Concourse C, and Gordon Biersch in Concourse D
Denver (DEN) Airport: This isn’t just a great microbrewing city, but Denver has the most fabulous airport drinking too! Boulder Beer (Jeppesen/main terminal, Level 5), New Belgium Brewpub in Concourse B (nice, artsy theme), Denver Chophouse and Brewing (A Gates, center core), Red Rocks Bar (BBQ and local microbrews) in Jeppesen terminal level 5, a Rock Bottom in Concourse C, and Timberline Steaks and Grill in Concourse C which serves up many craft brewers from New Belgium to Stone to Avery
Dulles/Washington DC (IAD) Airport: Old Dominion in Concourse B (got wood? Hint, hint) and Gordon Biersch in Concourse D. There are also some other choices such as The Firkin and the Fox in Concourse C and Harry’s Tap Room in D and the main ticketing level though I haven’t seen much about their tap offerings. Vino Volo Wine Room serves up that grape juice but there are known as one of the top airport dining places so it might be worth considering water and a good meal.
JFK Airport in NY: two Brooklyn Brewery bars at terminals 1 and 4
La Guardia (LGA) Airport: Jet Bars near Terminals A and C
Los Angeles (LAX) Airport: Redondo Beach Brewing in Terminal 6, Karl Strauss in Terminal 7, and Gordon Biersch in Terminal 1. Somehow I manage to miss them all when I fly into LAX. This is a huge, drawn out airport with an security line that rivals the one at Disneyland’s Space Mountain so unless you land or take off from one of these terminals, plan for a long layover or get to the airport a few hours in advance.
Minneapolis/St. Paul (MSP) Airport: Ike’s Food and Cocktails serves up local selections from Surly and Summit as well as a bottle list more often found in Belgium; there’s also a Rock Bottom between concourses C and D.
Newark (EWR) Airport: Brooklyn Brewery Jazz Bar in Terminal C and Sam Adams at A and C; all sort of yellow “BMC” piss in Terminal C (and the bathrooms…)
Portland (PDX) Airport: Rogue Ale Public House at Concourse D (open until 12:30am!) and Laurelwood Brewing pubs in concourses A and E
Raleigh Durham (RDU) Airport: Carolina Ale House and Gordon Biersch in Terminal 2
Salt Lake City (SLC) Airport: yep, they do serve liquor at the airport in Utah. Local brewers Wasatch (Terminal 2, Concourse D) and Squatters (Terminal 2, Concourse C)
San Francisco (SFO) Airport: Anchor Brewing and Gordon Biersch in Terminal 3
Sea-Tac (Seattle/Tacoma: SEA) Airport: Alaskan Brewing in the Alaska Lodge bar in Concourse C; the Mountain Room bar (Concourse A) and Seattle Taproom (Concourse C) serve up local and national craft beers as well.
St. Louis Lambert (STL) Airport: Schlafly Beer Taproom at Terminal 1, Concourse B but set to be shut down for airport renovations and no idea if another will reopen elsewhere, Beers of the World in Concourse A.
So if you’re planning a trip, you might want to consider one of these airports for your connecting flight. Even if they’re not as convenient, you might get the chance to sample some local beers without having to leave the confines of travel hell.