Spokane air travelers food options about to go local
Tod Stephens, The Spokesman-Review, Spokane, Wash.
5 min read
Mar. 24—Spokane International Airport is about to taste like home.
Jack and Dan's Bar & Grill, Iron Goat Brewing and Wanderlust Delicato are a few businesses that are expected to open up shop at the area's main transportation hub.
"We said we want local concepts," Amy Anderson, manager of properties and contracts for the airport, said on Feb. 29 in an airport board meeting. "We want people coming in and out of Spokane to have lunch at Jack and Dan's here at the airport."
Airport officials are nearing finalization of a plan to bring numerous local restaurants and bars to its three concourses, including concourse C, which is currently under construction.
During the February meeting, Anderson supplied a list of restaurants that plan to open at the airport.
Spokane restaurants include Jack & Dan's from the Logan Neighborhood, Shelby's Burgers from Latah Valley, Method Juice Cafe — which has multiple locations — and Wiley's Downtown Bistro. Chef Chad White, who owns Zona Blanca Ceviche Bar, will open a taco restaurant also called Zona.
Coeur d'Alene will be represented by Meltz Extreme Grilled Cheese.
Multiple Thomas Hammer Coffee Roasters will be included in addition to a Starbucks location.
Anderson said there will be multiple vending options and an area that she called a "smart bistro."
"It's clean and not a bunch of vending machines scattered around the airport," she said. "It's where you can find everything you want in one location."
Before travelers can get access to local flavors, officials need to sign the contract with the company that will operate the restaurant and commercial retail spaces.
The deal with current food service operator HMSHost ends April 12, Anderson said in the meeting.
That company made it official in January, saying it would part ways with the airport and its 119 workers.
Instead, airport retail and food service spaces will be managed by SSP America, an international concessions operator based in Ashburn, Virginia.
The company was the only one to respond to a request for proposal to find a new operator published by the airport in October 2023.
SSP America operates concessions at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, Portland International Airport and 43 other airports in the U.S., Canada, Bermuda and Brazil, according to its website.
The company has a track record of bringing homegrown vendors to their airports.
"Local restaurants are a mirror reflection of a region — of its people, its food, its culinary landscape. They tell a region's culinary story," the company's website reads. "At SSP America, we bring these culinary stories and communities to life, one airport and one restaurant at a time."
Airport officials, in the proposal document, noted they were seeking "a variety of food service and retail concepts that reflect the modern Spokane and Inland Northwest region."
Restaurateur Adam Hegsted said he and airport officials have been in discussions for about a year.
"They said here's what we're looking for and they listed all the different kinds of restaurants and bars," he said.
Hegsted owns the Yards Bruncheon and Baba in Kendall Yards, Française in the South Perry District, Honey Eatery in Coeur d'Alene and Republic Kitchen and Taphouse in Post Falls.
He reached a "gentleman's agreement" with the airport to show his commitment to open the Yards while contract negotiations are ongoing, he said.
Though nothing is final until a contract is signed by both the airport and SSP, Hegsted gave some indication of how airport restaurants work.
"It's essentially a licensing agreement," he said. "I will license over the Yards, and they will operate it."
But Hegsted and his team will be in charge of creating and updating menu items and visiting the airport operation regularly to ensure product quality and service are up to his standards.
"It's a really great marketing opportunity, but we have control over quality," he said. "Otherwise we wouldn't have done it."
He said the company even offered to hire a manager of Hegsted's choosing, but details of this hire are still to be determined.
SSP America will also be responsible for renovating store locations for the new vendors on concourses A and B and constructing new locations on concourse C.
In the meeting, Anderson said airport officials plan to give SSP until March 31, 2026, to complete construction on all retail and food service locations.
"That's going to be for refreshing the concepts, building them out and making them beautiful spaces," she said in the meeting.
She said the airport expects construction to cost about $18.9 million.
Larry Krauter, airport CEO, said in the February board meeting that the project will not be easy because it overlaps with construction efforts for its terminal renovation and expansion program that includes to construction of concourse C.
"It's certainly going to be a challenge," he said. "But we're going take it on as a team and make sure we're delivering to customers."
Additionally, transferring employees and service from HMSHost to SSP America may be difficult.
"That's probably one of the most important aspects of the operating part of the agreement for us," he said in the meeting. "So we will work closely with the existing concessions operators and with SSP to make sure that is maintained."
Airport officials hope the new vendors may offer food and beverage products either at "street" or no more than "street plus 10%" prices so customers are not deterred from making purchases at the airport, according to the proposal document.
Anderson estimated that when build out is complete for concessions location in 2026, SSP will earn $21.5 million in annual sales revenue.
SSP America declined to comment this week until the contract is finalized. Spokane International Airport spokespersons also declined to comment until then.
