John Wayne Airport has landed an Orange County culinary icon.
To make way, the landmark Orange Bar & Grill, the only sit-down restaurant at the airport, is closing this week after 16 years.
Enter restaurateur David Wilhelm.
HMSHost Corp., the food service operator at the county-owned airport, has hired Wilhelm to spruce up the spot with a catchy eatery.
The new restaurant, set to open in July, will be called Oasis Grill & Sky Lounge.
It won’t be quite as fancy as Wilhelm’s French-styled Chat Noir in Costa Mesa or French 75 in Laguna Beach, or his other restaurants in Southern California.
The restaurant is set to cater to travelers who have more time on their hands after arriving at the airport early to clear security, said Ron Gomes, vice president of business development for HMSHost, a Bethesda, Md.-based provider of food services and beverages at airports around the country.
“Relative to everything else in the airport, it’ll be higher end dining,” Gomes said. “Instead of Burger King or McDonald’s, people like to have a meal brought to them, maybe with a glass of wine. They are willing to invest in the casual dining experience.”
With earlier check-ins and airlines cutting back on flight meals, there’s room for an upscale restaurant at the airport, Gomes said.
“We’ll watch it closely,” he said. “If something works, we’d try it in other places.”
Retro Feel
Wilhelm, who runs his restaurants under Newport Beach-based Culinary Adventures Inc., said he hopes to dress up the space on the second floor of the Thomas F. Riley terminal with a “mid-century” ambience, making use of large windows looking out onto the runways.
Oasis Grill & Sky Lounge is set to have a retro feel with green and orange hues, like those used for atomic-era homes in the 1940s to 1960s in Palm Springs.
“My wife and I bought a second home in Palm Springs a few years ago and did a retro remodeling,” Wilhelm said. “It’s very colorful and has an in-your-face color approach in terms of a color scheme.”
Chrome model DC-3 planes are set to hang as lights, with a huge boomerang-shaped structure looming over a bar where “fun” martinis will be served up with names like the Atomic, Cosmo Topper, Pink Flamingo and The Right Stuff, according to Wilhelm.
Wilhelm Flair
The food will have Wilhelm flair.
But the restaurant has more of an “upscale coffee shop” feel where diners can order burgers, sausage and gravy and breakfast burritos.
“Having grown up in the Midwest (in Michigan) this food is very familiar to me, but it will be a departure for me from my French bistro,” Wilhelm said.
Gomes said HMSHost plans to spruce up menus throughout the airport as the county gets ready in the next year to add a terminal and make other changes.
Already, two Starbucks were added, Gomes said, as well as a French bakery and delicatessen food court, Brioche Doree, with sandwiches and salads.
Tapping well-known restaurateurs for “signature” restaurants in airports is part of a bigger trend.
TV chef Todd English has Ozone-Bos, a 2,500-square-foot bar and restaurant at Boston’s Logan International Airport.
Ozone-Bos’ d & #233;cor is contemporary, cast in neon, pink and blue light.
Celebrity Kathy Casey has Dish D’Lish at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport where she serves up gourmet sandwiches, soups and salads.
Others are sprouting up at other airports, Gomes said.
Oasis could generate up to $3 million annually, an estimate based on the roughly 4.8 million passengers who boarded a plane at the airport last year.
In all, more than 9.6 million travelers used the airport last year.
Those arriving are less likely to hang around for a meal.
The Orange Bar & Grill generates roughly a third less in revenue than what’s expected at Oasis, said Randy Hiatt, president of Fessell International, a Costa Mesa-based hospitality consultancy.
“No one knows the Orange Bar & Grill unless you run through the airport every other week,” he said. “With his name (Wilhelm), the risk is low in Orange County.”
