The next time 33-year-old Jennifer Henderson flies from Boston to Dallas to visit her girlfriends, she won't have to tote apples and cheese sticks from home to ease her hunger during the flight - or during the long wait for its departure.
Henderson and other American Airlines travelers passing through Terminal B at Boston's Logan International Airport will be able to scoop up minted fruit salad with honey vanilla yogurt and a butter croissant for breakfast at Todd English's Bonfire restaurant, which is scheduled to open tomorrow. Or sit down in front of a tower of freshly shucked chilled raw shellfish with a glass of Sonoma Coast chardonnay at Roger Berkowitz's new Legal C Bar, which is slated to open next week.
"I'm excited," said Henderson, a sixth-grade math teacher who flies from Logan's American Airlines terminal five or six times a year. "You're not stuck with whatever's left at the Hudson News stand, which are usually soy nuts for me."
Bonfire, Legal C Bar, and five other new eateries should be open in time to serve the throng of Thanksgiving travelers - and three more venues should arrive in time for the spring break swell. The restaurants are part of a year-old $10.8 million concession renovation and expansion for the airport's busiest terminal. They're coming just in time: Late or canceled flights are occurring more frequently than at any point in the past decade and stricter security measures are requiring travelers to arrive at the airport with plenty of time to grow hungry or thirsty.
Now Terminal B travelers can expect shorter lines since the upgrade added 15,000 square feet of concession space and five more vendors. And they can choose from more diverse menus, from freshly rolled sushi at Ryo Asian Fusion to organic entrees at UFood Grill.
That should boost concession sales, which means the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan airport, will enjoy more money flowing into its coffers thanks to the 9.5 percent cut it receives from food, beverage, and retail sales. Those sales funneled more than $12 million to the public agency last year following the unveiling of better dining options in terminals A and E.
Restaurateurs expect to benefit, too. Airport outposts double as excellent test kitchens for experimenting with novel ideas, from fusion appetizers to edgy eating environments. For instance, Berkowitz of Legal Sea Foods tried out Legal Test Kitchen in Logan's Terminal A in 2005 before bringing the restaurant's multicultural spin on seafood and its tabletop iPod docking stations to South Boston's Seaport district. He's using that tactic again with Terminal B's Legal C Bar, which Berkowitz describes as a contemporary casual cafe and urban seafood bar.
"What we found over the years is airports are a good way to test new concepts because you have a very discriminating clientele in terms of their food preferences and they have good discretionary income," he said. "They're really going to vote with their feet."
"The idea is to see how it does in the airport," Berkowitz added, "and if it does well, then to bring it out into the field."
There's certainly a well-heeled market for Logan's new eateries. Median household income of Logan passengers ranged from $90,000 to $120,000 last year, according to Massport survey data. Each departing passenger spent an average of $5.62 at the food and beverage concessionaries in 2006.
Over the past year, fliers have found more reasons to spend money at airports. Tighter regulations preventing passengers from carrying liquids through airport security checkpoints and skimpier meal options on flights have fueled growth in food service operations at airport facilities across the country, according to the National Restaurant Association.
Now, that many airports are offering more than reheated pizza, greasy hamburgers, and limp sandwiches, some travelers look forward to grabbing a bite down the hall from their flight gate, according to focus groups and interviews conducted at airports last year for HMSHost Corp., a Bethesda, Md.-based food and beverage concessionaire at Logan and 103 other airports worldwide.
"Our latest research shows that if they know there's some place good to eat at the airport, they'll actually change their behavior and arrive even earlier to give themselves time to eat before they get on the plane," said Stanley Novack, HMSHost's vice president of concept development.
That's a tantalizing opportunity for Berkowitz, even though he estimates it costs 20 to 30 percent more to open a restaurant inside an airport compared to an outside location. Legal C Bar will be his fourth venue at Logan. He also has a restaurant at Reagan National Airport in Washington, D.C.
The Boston-based restaurant chain's chief executive is searching for other East Coast airports to enter, with Philadelphia and Atlanta likely up next. English plans to open at least five airport restaurants in the next 18 months, including sites at Las Vegas's McCarran International Airport and New York's La Guardia and John F. Kennedy International airports.
The new thrust stems from English's own stomach grumbling at airports. He said he's been forced to choose between "three-hour-old hot dogs rolling around on the hot-dog rollers" and "frozen chicken wings."
"Usually," English said, "you just tough it out and starve."
Nicole C. Wong can be reached at nwong@globe.com.
