Paradies, United Concessions Group Partner To Open Celebrity Chef’s First Airport Location
August 20th marked the official grand opening of Bar Symon in Pittsburgh
International (PIT), a casual sit-down restaurant and bar concept
created by famed celebrity chef Michael Symon. Located in PIT’s
Airmall-managed Center Core, the concept is operated in partnership
between The Paradies Shops and United Concessions Group and features a
menu of comfort foods such as baked macaroni and cheese, grilled cheese,
burgers, sliders and wings in addition to a full bar. Ramon Lo of
Airport Revenue News spoke with the Food Network Iron Chef, author and
James Beard Foundation Award winner on the new venture, airport food and
bacon perfume.
Lo: What do you think of the whole introduction to airports?
Symon: I thought it was great. We’re very excited to be a part of
it, especially as someone who travels a good amount and certainly
appreciates when you get a great meal at an airport. So we’re excited to
do an airport project where the focus is on food–granted very
comforting, simple food–but we’re still cooking everything from scratch
and to order, which it is very exciting for us.
Lo: Prior to having this presence in airports, what were your thoughts on airport food in general?
Symon: I guess going back to traveling a lot–your expectations
are generally low I would say. I would say most of the food that I’ve
had at airports has been moderate at best. I don’t mean that in
disrespect to anybody else that does things in an airport. It’s not easy
to do great food at an airport. The one thing that we learned is we did
the menu backwards from how we typically do. We looked at what our
limitations were and then built a menu from there, as opposed to
creating a menu and then realizing there were all these limitations in
trying to execute food that really isn’t possible to execute in that
environment.
Lo: In aiports you have the space constraints and the operational
constraints. Add to that you have a traveler with time constraints.
Did you feel like it was a combination of Dinner: Impossible and Iron
Chef?
Symon: I think the thing that I enjoy about any restaurant
project we do is that they always make you think. It’s my job as a chef
and our job as restaurateurs to think outside the box and know what
we’re capable of doing. My feeling about food is if the only thing that
you can make great is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, make peanut
butter and jelly sandwiches. At the end of the day I’d rather have a
great peanut butter and jelly sandwich than a crappy chicken sandwich.
That’s what I do.
On Iron Chef, if you look at it from even that world, that’s what I do.
On Iron Chef and Dinner: Impossible, I don’t try to make a square peg
fit in a round hole. Look at what your layout is, look at what your
constraints are and write the menu that you could execute as close to
perfection as you can, using as great ingredients as you can in that
setting.
Lo: So you received bit of a background as far as the constraints in an airport kitchen and then you worked backwards from there?
Symon: Yeah, we said here is the size of the kitchen. Here’s the
equipment we can fit in it. Let’s see what the greatest equipment we can
find to work from a functionality standpoint in this kitchen. Then once
we figured what we could do from an equipment standpoint, then we
created a menu that fit within that kitchen equipment to really ensure
that we were able to do it the right way.
Lo: How would you describe the food and the atmosphere of Bar Symon?
Symon: I would describe the food as very casual American. The
atmosphere is fun and vibrant but still very cool just like with the
food. My wife Liz helps design the restaurants and they always have a
comfortable feel to them, but with a little bit of an edge. I don’t
think Bar Symon is any different from that. I think it looks different
than most airport restaurants that people are used to. The food is
really comfort American classics done with a little of a twist and done
with elevated ingredients.
Lo: Do you feel Bar Symon epitomizes who you are, and your
personality is translated not just in the menu but in the entire feel of
the concept?
Symon: Absolutely. I think it very much shows the casual side of
me. It’s me cooking at home with family and friends in a very laid back
atmosphere and chilled out for sure.
We’ve done several different restaurant concepts over the past 16 years.
Lola is certainly on the high end of things as is Roast in Detroit and
our burger place B-Spot is super duper casual. We didn’t want to do
something quite as casual as a B-Spot. Once we figured out the equipment
in the kitchen and writing the menu, Liz, Doug [Petkovic, Michael
Symon’s business partner] and I also talked about what we would want to
eat if we were in an airport. You don’t want to sit down and have a
steak. I don’t want food that is overly fussed with. I want food that is
really simple and satisfying but good. If I get a pastrami sandwich or a
burger or a mac and cheese or pulled pork or wings I just want them to
be delicious. I don’t want them to feel like the chicken was cooked two
days before, and I don’t want it to feel like the wings were pre-done. I
want it to feel like and taste like and be like food that’s made from
scratch.
Lo: Many notable chefs such as Morimoto, Cat Cora, Todd English
and Wolfgang Puck have restaurants in airports. Did you feel any
pressure to follow that path or did you feel it was just natural
progression to extend into this market?
Symon: I really felt no pressure to kind of follow what they were
doing. To be honest, the whole reason we did the project is Ben
[Rababy business partner representing Bar Symon in airports] had this
little place BanJoe’s Cafe in Cleveland airport that I used to eat at
for almost every flight that I caught. I’d get a bite and a coffee
there. When Cleveland airport remodeled it went away. I wrote something
on Facebook saying, “Oh my God this sucks!” It was my go-to place where I
knew I could get good food, and I had never met them before. He emailed
me out of the blue, “Thanks so much for doing that. It means a lot to
my family and me. If you ever want to do anything in the airport
business give me a call.” Liz, Doug and I met him and we really liked
him. He’s a passionate guy with a lot of energy. I know him from eating
at BanJoe’s that he did the right thing, and he would do the right
thing. We liked Ben. The more we thought about it and kicked the idea
around we thought it would be something fun to do.
Lo: Airports are incorporating more local – local concepts, local
cuisines, local delicacies, etc–into their dining programs. As a
frequent flyer, what are your thoughts on this trend?
Symon: I think it’s a great trend. One, that they’re using local
talent is always a good thing. And then it has a little local flair to
it is great too. It gives you a little taste of the city.
Lo: What aspect of airport dining intrigues you the most?
Symon: I just like a good challenge. For me it’s finding the
right menu mix, the right timing to make all that stuff work correctly.
At the grand opening as people were talking to me, I was telling them
that we may not be the fastest, you may be able to get a meal faster
somewhere in the airport, but we’re still going to get your meal to you
in a very quick and timely manner but it’s going to be delicious. For
instance, if someone orders a burger, the order is going to come in,
we’re going to season the burger, we’re going to put it on the grill
then we’re going cook it. It’s the same thing with the chicken
sandwich. It’s the same thing with everything else. I’m not going
sandbag twenty burgers and twenty chicken sandwiches or whatever it is
to try to get ahead so I could get food out two minutes, three minutes
quicker.
For me, the most interesting, challenging thing is finding ways to make
that food to order and get it to the customer in a quick enough manner
to make them happy. It’s why we also have a small grab-and-go. My whole
argument for that was I fly a lot. I’ve flown pretty much everywhere and
I can’t tell you one time that I’ve had grab-and-go and eaten it and
thought, “That’s delicious!”
Why not just put things in there like delicious Greek yogurt? Put some
great salami in there. The minute you put the sandwich on the bread,
from that minute forward it starts getting worse. So I just don’t want
someone to grab food out of a grab-and-go and then get on the plane and
go, “Hmm that was just okay” I have no interest in doing anything that
is just “okay” We’re going continue to do it the right way and hope that
people appreciate the effort.
Lo: Is there a restaurant or eatery in any U.S. airport that you were blown away with?
Symon: Tyler Florence does a really nice job in the San Francisco
airport with Tyler Florence Rotisserie. I think it’s executed very
well. I think that more than any other one that I’ve had. We have had
good, tasty pizza in Todd English’s Figs. Those are two of the ones that
stand out to me the most.
Lo: Do you find from a casual standpoint that a lot of travelers
now are willing to try something different where if they were to see a
Bar Symon they would be more apt to try it?
Symon: I hope so! I think consumers in general are becoming more
aware of what they’re eating. And as that awareness grows of what goes
into certain food and what doesn’t go into certain food, I think that
will just continue to benefit restaurateurs like myself, like Tyler and
Todd and all those people. As time goes on people try different things,
their palate grows and the bar naturally is raised. And that’s all you
can hope for as a chef and a restaurateur.
Lo: I have Food Network on at my house almost 24/7. Do you find
that Food Network, your celebrity and the celebrity of your fellow chefs
has provided the consumer a better education of good, healthy food?
Symon: I think it’s helped dramatically. Absolutely! I always
call it the “Emeril Effect”. When you grew up in a mid-major city like I
did pre-Emeril, good luck going to your grocery store and getting wild
mushrooms and organic chicken. They didn’t exist. They existed in New
York and San Francisco and Los Angeles and Chicago but they didn’t in
Cleveland or Pittsburgh or cities like that. Now they do. Certainly the
Food Network and the people who laid the groundwork in the early days
like Bobby [Flay], Emeril [Lagasse] and Mario [Batali] have had a huge
impact on that.
Lo: Is there a food trend that you shake your head at and wonder, “Why?” like with cupcakes or poutine?
Symon: The poutine thing I love. Cupcakes I’ve never understood. I
never will. I don’t have a huge sweet tooth so that might have
something to do with it. There are just cupcakes everywhere! Also, this
is going to sound funny because I’m such a meathead but some of this
bacon nonsense is making me crazy too. Bacon is delicious and to me is
probably the most delicious food on Earth. There’s just places where it
doesn’t belong. Bacon and ice cream is actually delicious because it’s
super salty and sweet and it works really well. The texture is no
different than if you put something like peanuts or something crunchy in
there. But man, it’s just in places where it shouldn’t be. Perfume is
one of the places it shouldn’t be.
Lo: Bacon perfume is here in the United States?
Symon: Oh no, I’ve seen it. Did you ever go camping and you would
sit out by the fire for like six hours and you’d get home from your
trip and realize how bad you smell from the smoke and everything that
went with it? That’s kind of how bacon perfume smells. It smells like
someone rolled you through the ashes of a fire. It’s not pleasant.
Lo: Food is a global language. What do you look to say or express in the food you cook at home or in your restaurants?
Symon: I think that the greatest thing about food and the reason I
became a chef is because food has the incredible ability to create
happiness and spark conversation. So when I’m coming up with a dish,
that’s what I want the dish to do. I want the people to eat it and get
happy. I want them to think a little bit to where it stirs a little
conversation.
Lo: With all your obligations to The Chew, the Food Network and your restaurants, what do you do in your free time?
Symon: I don’t have a lot of it. But when I do have it, I’ll
attempt to sneak in golf as often as possible. What was once my one
restaurant and a hundred rounds a year of golf has gone down to closer
to ten. But I still enjoy the game thoroughly. Or I’ll jump on my
Harley and go for a scoot. Those are probably my two favorite things to
do. I cook at home a lot at home with family three, four times a week.
