Memphis Downtowner April 2012 : Page 27
NOW SERVING Memphis International airport by Hannah Huber and terre Gorham photos by Hannah Huber Memphis International Airport has long served as a Memphis economic powerhouse, hosting more than 10 million passengers a year. For decades, travelers hurried through the terminals, strictly focused on reaching their final destinations. But changes in the past few years have slowed passengers down to take in the sweet aroma of Memphis barbecue and the soothing sounds of Memphis blues. In 2005, a tremendous makeover of the airport’s concessions began, taking a culinary program that was poor at best and turning it into the Griesbach Award of Excellence winner for North America’s best concession program. “I envisioned an atmosphere that gave travelers a real sense of Memphis,” says Richard White, the airport’s vice president of properties and business development. “Reconstructing the concession program would be a surefire way to convey Midsouth flavor. We wanted people to have the taste, feel, and understanding of Memphis even if they don’t set foot outside the airport’s front door.” Indeed, when passengers get off the plane, they can smell the barbecue and hear the blues. White started the concessions makeover by inviting proposals from national food and beverage and retail companies familiar with serving in an airport setting. “I viewed it as a competition,” says White. “Who has the best concept of what we’re looking for?” White and his team came up with a separate package for each dining location in the airport, which, as a whole, culminated into what best portrayed the diversity of Memphis culture and cuisine. The winners included many Memphis mainstays, such as the Grisanti family’s Bol a’ Pasta and homegrown Lenny’s Sub Shop. richard white, vice president of properties and business development, stands with Angela washington, manager of properties, advertising, concessions, and tenant services in front of the many awards that the airport’s concession program has received in recent years, including the Griesbach Award of excellence for best airport concessions in north America, awarded by Airports council international. memphisdowntowner.com Such ardor in showcasing Memphis culture led to The Blue Note Cafe, Rhythms Cafe, and Sun Studio Cafe — each a culinary homage to the city’s unique music history. Musicians wail out the sultry blues or perform their best Elvis imitations on the restaurants’ center stages. Inside the 4,500-square-foot Sun Studio Cafe are portraits and album covers for stars such as Elvis Presley and B.B. King, who got their start at Memphis’s famous Sun Studio. The cafe showcases the wide range of music that has its roots buried in Memphis, including rock ‘n’ roll, hip-hop, country, and R&B. The Blue Note Cafe, meanwhile, pays direct tribute to the one music genre that made Memphis home: the blues. Both cafes feature a full bar and offer Southern classics, such as golden-fried catfish and barbecued ribs. Rhythms Cafe, too, offers its own sense of space and place, paying homage to the unique diversity of Memphis. ApriL 2012 memphis downtowner 27 “We knocked down everything in this airport that had to do with concessions and started from scratch,” says White. “We built it back up and have been rebuilding ever since. I don’t believe there has been a year or two that has gone by since then that we haven’t ripped out something and put something else back that was considered better than what was there.”
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