Austin Airport: Why do we have to sacrifise covenience for LOCAL? (live, restaurants)

[mlassoff]

Originally Posted by mimimomx3

Sorry, but McDonalds may be cheap in the short run, but very, very expensive in the long run (heart disease, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure...). What exactly are you getting out of that 'dollar menu'?

Here are the vendors (Shlotzkys is my favorite, I usually grab a salad from them):
Restaurant Concessions at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport

Thank you for the lesson on health care. However my mommy and daddy live in Florida, and they told me as an adult, I can make my own decisions. For the record, I normally eat pretty healthy, but it's not like a side of beef from Salt Lick is exactly healthy.

I am simply asking for more options, with better hours. Schlorzky's offers ome of the WORST options from a health perspective-- much worse than many items on a McDonald's menu. How about a Subway?

The airport can do a better job of serving its customers. There is no excuse for everything to be closed when hungry passengers are in the terminal.

And yes, on price, we can do better than a $4.00 breakfast taco.

[mimimomx3]

Originally Posted by mlassoff

Thank you for the lesson on health care. However my mommy and daddy live in Florida, and they told me as an adult, I can make my own decisions. For the record, I normally eat pretty healthy, but it's not like a side of beef from Salt Lick is exactly healthy.

I am simply asking for more options, with better hours. Schlorzky's offers ome of the WORST options from a health perspective-- much worse than many items on a McDonald's menu. How about a Subway?

The airport can do a better job of serving its customers. There is no excuse for everything to be closed when hungry passengers are in the terminal.

And yes, on price, we can do better than a $4.00 breakfast taco.

I really don't care what you eat. Go get yourself a Big Mac and a bigger pair of pants.

[verybadgnome]

One of the things I like about Austin is that there are certain neighborhoods where you'd be hard pressed to find any chains at all.

Since the airport is the first thing most out-of-towners see of Austin I'm for keeping it the way it is with the possibility of the airport management itself pushing for a little more convenience from existing outlets rather than replacing them.

McDonalds? They are about the same level as Taco Bell and Burger King so you might want to take a look at this and hopefuly come to a more sane conclusion:

http://imway2fat.files.wordpress.com...-king-lady.jpg

[mlassoff]

Originally Posted by verybadgnome

Since the airport is the first thing most out-of-towners see of Austin I'm for keeping it the way it is with the possibility of the airport management itself pushing for a little more convenience from existing outlets rather than replacing them.

I'm not sure those even arriving in town even notice the restaurants since they are rushing to baggage claim, car rental and other ground transportation. I understand this was the logic early on, but the local vendors aren't doing the job.

[mimimomx3]

ABIA is just one arm in the 'Keep Austin Wierd' marketing camapign. The airport showcases local businesses to differentiate from Anytown, USA. Agree or disagree, the marketing campaign seems to work as evidenced by the number of tourists visiting Austin and the number of people moving here. I don't see the vendor mix changing unless the airport expands. Are they doing their job? Well, they're providing food and beverage at a cost similar to other airports. In the meantime, I guess travelers will just have to deal with their hunger pains until they get to Dallas or Houston to stuff their faces with that McCrappy.

[TexasHorseLady]

Please, no chains! One of the beauties of the Austin airport is that it IS local vendors. (I agree that the hours should be accommodating to the needs of travelers, however.)

Why this persistent desire to "dumb down" Austin (and everywhere else, come to that, here and in other countries) so that there's no point in even getting on a plane because everywhere is so much the same that there's no point in going anywhere? I'm brought to mind of the stereotype of the "ugly American" who will go on a cruise but never leave the ship because they might be exposed to the local food and sights, something different than McDonald's and its ilk, and who wants that?

If you really only want to be exposed to the familiar, stay home!

[Cardiff Giant]

The Salt Lick in the airport is my 'go to' breakfast when I travel. I suppose you can get a side of beef if that's what you're after but I always have an egg and cheese breakfast taco. That, an OJ and maybe a valium I'm good to fly.

The last thing any town (or airport) needs is another Starbucks and McD's.

[10scoachrick]

Originally Posted by mlassoff

I am simply asking for more options, with better hours. Schlorzky's offers ome of the WORST options from a health perspective-- much worse than many items on a McDonald's menu. How about a Subway?
.

Interesting...this is the second time I've heard how terrible Schlotzsky's is from a nutritional standpoint. Looking at their nutritional breakdown chart, it looks no worse than other 'fast casual' type food. Sure, you can go crazy and get a large triple cheese somethingorother and chase it with a hunk of carrot cake(whoa on those calories!) but many of the main items are +-500 calories and a couple dozen fat grams per...not all that bad considering the taste(yummo, turkey bacon club!).

Was there some local expose' that I missed? Who's picking on Schlotzsky's? Until they changed their sweet tea, it was one of my favorites!

[mlassoff]

I understand the seeming advantages to keeping things local, however, it doesn't work for many of us who are frequent flyers. There is a lack of convenience foods that you'd find at many airports-- and judging by the number of crowded Starbucks throughout Austin, I'm not sure it would be tragic to have one in the terminal.

Sure a four dollar breakfast taco and $2.95 cup of coffee is good if you are an occasional airport visitor-- but once or twice a week it gets old.

And again, no one has addressed that the local chains can't seem to provide service at all hours when people are in the terminal.

[Tondo1984]

Originally Posted by mimimomx3

My experience is that all airport food is overpriced. Thanks to 'security issues' we aren't even able to bring good food from home and have to choose from a lot of plastic packed food.

I bring food along each week to the airport; you can bring food, as long as it's not like, soup or something. This can save lots of money!