New York City

 The Palm Bar & Grille opens at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)

John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) - March 8, 2010 - SSP America, a division of SSP, the leading operator of food and beverage brands in travel locations worldwide, has celebrated the grand opening of The Palm Bar & Grille at JFK International Airport Terminal 4, marking the first airport location of the famed New York steakhouse. At the celebration, The Palm’s Co-Chairman and Co-Owner Wally Ganzi, was joined by New York State Governor David A. Paterson; Jerry Spampanato, General Manager, JFK International Airport, Port Authority of New York/New Jersey; SSP CEO Andrew Lynch; SSP America President and CEO Les Cappetta; Alain Maca, President of JFK IAT, LLC; and Janice Holden, Chief Commercial Officer of JFK IAT, LLC, the company that operates the terminal.

The Palm Bar & Grille is located in the pre-security, public area of Terminal 4, one of New York City’s largest terminals, and is easily accessible to the more than nine million travellers passing through the terminal each year, their family, friends and “meeters and greeters”, as well as thousands of airport employees, airline workers and service providers, and many others who make up the JFK Airport business community. The restaurant is part of SSP America’s new line-up of food and beverage options at Terminal 4. The Palm Bar & Grille, created by The Palm Restaurant, “the classic American steakhouse,” is one of many brands to debut at Terminal 4 in the last year.

Founded on Second Avenue in New York City by Pio Bozzi and John Ganzi in 1926, The Palm has grown to be the oldest family-owned, white tablecloth restaurant to expand across the United States. The Palm is known for its hospitality, generous portions, and caricature adorned walls. Busy travellers passing through Terminal 4 will enjoy The Palm’s prime cuts of meat and popular Italian and seafood dishes. “SSP’s investment in JFK’s Terminal 4 underscores our vision to redefine ‘airport dining,’” said Les Cappetta, chief executive officer of SSP America. “Our mission is to elevate travellers’ dining experiences in airports across the nation and our partnership with JFK IAT is helping us do just that in New York City, one of the most important gateways to the world.”

The Palm Bar & Grille at JFK Terminal 4 features a private dining room for meetings and events and offers private catering from breakfast to evening dining. In July 2009, SSP America announced a new restaurant line-up at Terminal 4, which includes The Palm Bar & Grille as well as the first U.S. location for the popular European seafood restaurant Seafood Bar by Caviar House & Prunier. SSP’s other new restaurants at Terminal 4 include: Zpizza, offering lighter, healthier and creative pizzas, two new post-security sit-down restaurants Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar and Tigin Irish Pub & Restaurant (slated to open in May 2010), as well as two international bakery concepts, Upper Crust and Panopolis, both offering high quality baked goods and sandwiches. Panda Express, the nation’s leading Chinese fast-casual restaurant and Peet’s Coffee & Tea, which offers a superior and distinctive range of coffees brewed from the highest quality beans from around the world, have also opened locations at JFK Terminal 4.

According to Nation's Restaurant News (http://www.nrn.com/breakingNews.aspx?id=380250), the Palm Bar & Grille at JFK will offer the same steaks and seafood found at other Palm restaurants, and will also focus on premium burgers, salads and sandwiches.

Source:
SSP - http://www.foodtravelexperts.com/newsarticle/82/latestnews/nyc%E2%80%99s-famed-steakhouse,-the-palm-opens.../

The Stone Rose Bar & Grill opens in Delta's Terminal 3 at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK)

John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) - February 2010 - The Stone Rose Bar & Grill opened recently at JFK. According to the HMSHost press release (February 9, 2010), "Stone Rose Bar & Grill at JFK reflects the Gerber Group brand’s trademarks: cutting-edge design and innovative cocktails offered in an atmosphere of casual elegance. While sipping cocktails, travelers can also catch their favorite sporting event on one of the many flat screen TVs while dining on a wide variety of upscale fare. In addition to tasty bites such as Jumbo Shrimp Sugarcane Skewer, Roasted Chicken Buffalo Mozzarella salad, a Caprese Ficelle or Steak Flatbread sandwich, all of which can be followed by a Berries and Chocolate dessert, the menu includes breakfast selections of quiche, scrambles, bagels and more."

The new Stone Rose Bar & Grill joins these other John F. Kennedy International Airport restaurants:

Balducci's Post-Security Food Court
Burger King Post-Security Main Food Court
Burger King Post-Security Upper Food Court Opposite Gate 18
Chili's Too Post-Security Food Court
Ciao Post-Security Gate 18
Dunkin' Donuts Post-Security Gate 14
Dunkin' Donuts/Gourmet on the Fly Pre-Security International Arrivals Area
Healthy Gourmet Post-Security Gate 14
Sam Adams Brewhouse Post-Security Food Court
Sbarro Post-Security Food Court
Starbucks Coffee Post-Security Gate 18
Starbucks Coffee Post-Security Food Court

New York John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) runway construction has potential to cause early summer flight delays

New York John F. Kennedy international Airport (JFK) - January 2010 -  The program in progress to decrease flight delays at Kennedy Airport will include closure of the airport's main runway, the "Bay Runway" from March until June 2010. When it reopens in July, it will still be with limitations. During the closure, with certain wind directions the airport will have only one runway operational. The Bay runway is the second longest runway in the country. The closure will result in 6 inches of runway asphalt being replaced by thicker more durable concrete, which is intended to ultimately decrease runway maintenance requirements and closures. A second runway will close for 2 weeks in September as part of the program. All of the major airlines operating out of JFK have agreeed to delay the start of theiir summer flight schedule until July 1. This will result in fewer than normal flights in June, and the potential for flight delays, partiicularly if the weather creates runway useage limitations. The largest domestic carrier at JFK is JetBlue and the largest international carrier is Delta. Anyone planning their summer travel should keep this runway closure and potential for JFK flight delays in mind.

Source: New York Times January 7, 2010
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/08/nyregion/08runway.html?pagewanted=1&sq=kennedy%20runway%20closure&st=cse&scp=1

New John F. Kennedy Airport Restaurants opening soon

John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) (July 2009) -- Slated to open later this year are a number of new airport restaurants in John F. Kennedy Airport Terminal 4. Unfortunately the press release does not give an opening date for these restaurants, and the JFK website still lists all the old restaurants. The line up is quite impressive, though and includes:

The Palm Bar & Grille - this will be the first airport location of the famous steakhouse chain which started in New York City.
Seafood Bar by Caviar House & Prunar - will features a premier selection of wine and vodkas as well as Balik smoked salmon, Atlantic seafood and Prunier farmed Caspian caviar.
ZPizza - features fire-baked 100% organic wheat dough pizza with extensive topping options
Buffalo Wild Wings Grill & Bar - a national chain famous for its chicken wings, but also offering other menu items such as appetizers and burgers
Tigin Irish Pub & Restaurant - features Irish food and European draft beers
Upper Crust & Panopolis - two bakery concepts, with the first featuring fresh baguettes, and the second sandwiches on artisanal bread.
Panda Express - a fast food Chinese chain
Peet's Coffee & Tea

If you have recently visited Terminal 4 please let us know which of these restaurants have opened, and any comments you may have on them. Thanks! - Gus

American Airlines opens "Pet Relief Area" at John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) Terminal 8 and PetAirways begins operations.

Kennedy International Airport (JFK) (July 2009) -- If you are traveling with a pet through Kennedy Airport Terminal 8 then your pet is in luck! A new "Pet Relief Area" has opened at the departure level, giving pets one last opportunity, like their masters, to take care of their business before boarding the plane. It sound like there's everything a pet would need, like bags for their masters' to pick up their pets' business, some real grass, and a fire hydrant.

On a side note, a recent article in the New York Times has a nice discussion on traveling by air with pets, and some useful links.

Of course, most people have already heard about the recent launch of PetAirways, but in case you haven't or want to learn mor, you can learn about them on their website - petairways.com. Their website also offers some useful tips for traveling with pets and getting things ready for their flight. Initial service which began on July 14 is near 5 major metropolitan airports, which includes Republic Airport in Farmingdale, NY (on Long Island); Baltimore/Washington International Airport; Chicago Midway; Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport (Broomfield, CO), Hawthorne Municipal AIrport/Los Angeles Executive Airport (Hawthorne, CA). They fly turboprob planes which have had their cabins refitted to hold the pet carriers (that they provide for your pet), which are held in place by their proprietary restraint system. A Pet Attendant monitors the animals throughout the flight as well as in the Pet Lounge. Your pet's progress can also be tracked on-line. You can check out pictures of the PetAirways planes and "pawsenger" area on the PetAirways web site as well.