RESTAURANTS AT DELTA’S JFK TERMINAL 4: A TASTE TEST
By Ryan Sutton
Blue Smoke on the Road
I’m devouring a pile of musky pulled pork when Uzbekistan Airways Flight 102 touches down on U.S. soil, following a 17-hour journey from Tashkent. I watch the landing like a child at a monster truck rally, my face pressed against the floor-to-ceiling windows of Danny Meyer’s barbecue joint. This is what we call sense of place.
Too many airport restaurants try to make you forget you’re in an airport, which is too bad—they end up being cramped, windowless affairs with all the charm of a suburban shopping mall. Meyer instead embraces JFK, removing the walls so the boundary between restaurant and terminal is nearly invisible. It feels open, airy, and alive.
Hot bologna sandwiches ($12) do what they do best: mimic the taste and texture of flattened hot dogs. Sausages ($13) sting with the heat of clean black pepper, while pork ribs ($22), unnecessarily sauced, exude a slightly dry, slightly smoky finish. Avoid the $42 strip steak, a greasy mess with no sign of char, and the shaken, under-vermouthed Manhattan, which drinks less like a classic cocktail and more like a glass of moonshine. Blue Smoke isn’t a perfect replica of the Manhattan edition, but it’ll do.
Bottom Line: Get a sandwich and watch the planes—or the game on the flat-screen TVs.
Shake Shack
Danny Meyer’s burger joint continues to attract hour-long lines at its Madison Square Park flagship. But here at JFK, I waited just 10 minutes for the same high-quality junk food. Meyer knows how to duplicate without diluting the brand, which explains why he can handle locations in Istanbul, London, Kuwait City, and elsewhere. The burger is a proprietary blend, boasting a salty char and a clean beefiness. The chief condiment is a tart, drippy, Thousand Island-esque special sauce. The vehicle is a soft, sweet potato bun wrapped in wax paper. It’s a near-perfect fast-food burger that makes the McDonald’s (MCD) outpost at T4 irrelevant. Cost: $5.50. Wash it all down with a creamsicle shake—orange soda mixed with a rich, eggy frozen custard ($5.25). But bypass the cafeteria-like digs, and bring your Shack fare with you to the Delta Sky Club.
Bottom Line: The burger is way better than anything you’ll eat in business class.
(ORIGINAL ARTICLE)
Delta’s T4 Food
