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Tuesday, March 26, 2024

Local restaurants soar into Sacramento

Davis’ own Dos Coyotes and Burgers and Brew are among the many restaurants that will be featured in the new, modernized Terminal B at the Sacramento airport.

The Sacramento County Board of Supervisors approved contracts for these Davis-based businesses on Oct. 5. Jack’s Urban Eats, Cafeteria 15L and Esquire Grill of Sacramento were also approved. The new terminal is planned to open at the end of 2011.

“The restaurant mix should offer passengers a sense of place reflective of Sacramento’s role as the gateway to northern California, while enhancing the overall travel experience,” said G. Hardy Acree, director of airports for the Sacramento County Airport System, in a press release.

Construction of the $1.04 billion project began in 2008, replacing the previous 40 year-old terminal. The new facility will boast 680,000 square feet with three public arrival and departure terminals, a 19 gate airside concourse and two concession areas.

Dos Coyotes and Burgers and Brew will be housed in the concourse along with Jack’s Urban Eats, Cafeteria 15L, Esquire Grill, Peet’s Coffee, and Starbucks.

“[The concessions] will be just like any other concession place at the airport. It is a counter service and we will have common seating with other concessions,” said Derar Zawaydeh, owner of Burgers and Brew. “It will be similar to what we do here [in Davis] during the day.”

Many services at the new airport location will be similar to what people are used to at the local restaurant, Zawaydeh said. About 90 percent of the items on the full menu will be available at the airport’s counter service.

In some cases, there will even be additions to cater the unique airport crowd. Dos Coyotes plans on offering breakfast items and southwestern sandwiches to accommodate the needs of the fast-paced airport group.

“The airports have changed,” said Bobby Coyote, owner of Dos Coyotes. “They are open 365 days a year, so we need to be prepared and ready to go at 5 a.m. every day.”

The airport branch staff will also be trained by their respective concessions to provide similar quality of service as in the restaurants.

Dos Coyotes staff will be trained at the local restaurants before they are sent to the airport branch, Coyote said.

However, concessionaires will handle the hiring and day-to-day management of both branches, like all other concessions at the airport. SSP America will represent Dos Coyotes, as well as Jack’s Urban Eats, Cafeteria 15L and Peet’s Coffee. Host International will operate Burgers and Brew, Esquire Grill and Starbucks. Two other concessionaires, Famiglia-DeBartolo LLC and Taste, Inc. will represent other regional restaurants and retail stores in the concourse.

Despite the absence of direct supervision by the owners, both Coyote and Zawaydeh are confident of the high quality of service at their airport branches.

“We have the right to audit the service,” Zawaydeh said. “We will use the same local vendors we have now, like Village Bakery. This new branch will be using all the same recipes [as our other branches].”

As for the prices of these familiar services, they will be higher at the airport branch than the local branches.

“The airports usually charge extremely high rent, but the bylaws that have been given at the request of the proposal, the food is not going to be more than 10% from street prices,” Coyote said.

Regardless of the rent, both Coyote and Zawaydeh look forward to the opening

“If anything, it will have a positive effect in the sense that we will get more exposure,” Zawaydeh said. “This way, Sacramento Airport [will have] something that is reflective of the city of Sacramento. It will present restaurants that [provide] decent food at the airport.”

SARAHNI PECSON can be reached at city@theaggie.org.

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