Jaunted

Best food and beverage options were awarded to JFK within Terminal 4—sorry JetBlue no mention of T5 this year. Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport picked up second place, and honorable mentions were given out to Raleigh-Durham’s new terminal as well as the central terminal at LaGuardia.

All those airports are fine and dandy when it comes to their food options, but we’d probably score the airports as a whole rather just for a specific terminal. Domestic travelers are certainly in for a rude awakening if their expecting award winning concessions flying out of JFK. Judging the entire airport would definitely eliminate any NYC area airports—as well as RDU with its moldy smelling Terminal 1. Maybe an overall pick could go to somewhere like Detroit-Metro, where both terminals are new, inviting, and full of varied options.

Other notable dining hotspots include a place that we’ve checked out a couple of times too many. Pinkberry—making its debut at LAX—was selected as one of the best new food and beverage concepts. However, the top spot in this category went to a new restaurant at the General Mitchell International Airport in Milwaukee. It sounds like an option to us, especially because we’ve never had Italian food in airport that wasn’t Sbarro. Expect pizzas, pastas, and other homemade recipes from the local restaurant group. There’s even gelato and a departure board within the restaurant, so you can lick away your sorrow while waiting for your delayed flight.

This year’s picks seem reasonable, but we’d kind of like some specifics on how the votes were tallied. Some of the places they picked are certainly good ones, but we want to know why exactly certain airports are above others while other airports didn’t even receive a medal for participation. Although, it could just be jealously as we didn’t get to vote.

[Photo: sporst and Doug Letterman ]