Airports. You know the feeling. Your plane is delayed, and there is nothing to do. The salami pizza has so little topping it could be labeled suitable for vegetarians. There is a choice of the local pale lager and Carlsberg at twice the price you pay downtown.
Sure, there are exceptions. The brewpub at Munich airport. A glass of Altbier in Düsseldorf. The Weatherspoons bars in a number of UK Airports. But generally? Blah.
Part of the reason is that the airport owners tend to give one huge contract to a single restaurant entrepreneur, creating a monopoly on food and beverages. No competition, no incentives to offer a broad choice. The entrepreneur then goes to a few breweries, getting a quote on the delivery of a certain number of hectoliters of bland lager per week. And they, appropriately, get what they pay for.
But it seems to me to be a tipping point. There is a rather large Norwegian company running restaurants and bars both in airports and in city centers. You never see it, as it hides behind a number of brand names, or, as they prefer to call it, concepts. The market is the starting point and the concepts are the consequence is their slogan, which does not sound much better in Norwegian.
Their concepts vary, from mundane sandwich bars in railway stations and airports to places where the company behind them is invisible like fru Hagen or Beach Club in Oslo. The parent company even has the Norwegian Burger King franchise.
But back to the airports. Looks like things have come to a tipping point. And I realize that there will never be a time for the small family run cafe or pub in Norwegian airports. The best we could ever hope for, then, is that craft beer finds it way into a concept. Which it has.
The following is from a trade site, probably quoted verbatim from a press release, describing their new Brygghuset (Brewhouse) concept.
Brygghuset is a new, targeted pub concept. This is the down to earth cozy pub where everyone feel at home – on a business trip, with your mates or traveling with your girl friends. Brygghuset specializes in good beer. You will find a particularly broad selection of good Norwegian local “hand breweries”, but also classical national and international varieties.
The first pub featuring this concept will open in Bodø airport. Presumably to be followed by others.
Now, if they could get some decent beers into their chain of pizza restaurants, too. But I doubt Carlsberg would like that.
Meanwhile, in Prague. The best beer you can get at the airport is a can of Budvar Světlý Ležák for about 25CZK. Of course, you’ll have to drink it before getting to pre-boarding lest you blow up a plane with one of those….
Plese let there be so decent beer before we depart on the 21st May 🙂
I remember that Norrebro Bryghus has a bar at Copenhagen airport. Who wouldn’t want that?
I believe the new Berlin Brandenburg terminal building will have two decent bars when it opens on 3rd June this year according to the publicity
The airport Nørrebro had closed last time I was through Copenhagen, in 2010.
Your main options in Dublin are: the one with the large outdoor area, the beautifully designed modern one, or the crappy mezzanine café that just happens to have Porterhouse Oyster Stout on draught. No prizes for guessing where I wait. Nothing beats that creamy pint of Oyster at 5.30am.
Surprised that Bodø will get this “concept”. I’m sure they’ll manage to build a “brygghus”, but i’m not to sure about the selection… maybe a few Mack-mesos?
I’m sure this is decided centrally in the Umoe Group. I guess there will be a few beers from Haandbryggeriet, Nøgne Ø and Ægir.
Great idea, but debuting in Bodø? That’s not a place where the locals are very used to craft beer, is it? I think how well this concept does will depend a lot on the attitude of the locals. IMHO they’d have far better chances at OSL.
But maybe I’m being too negative here. Let’s hope it works.
Bodø? That is great. That place is more or less a draught beer desert, as I have documented in my beer blog:
http://beersagas.blogspot.com/search/label/Bod%C3%B8
By the way: I am having a stopover in Munich next month. I have an hour at the airport. Is that enough to visit the brewpub. From the maps at the airport’s website it looks like the brewpub is outside the airport proper and I have to go through security after visiting it.
It is landside of the airport above the S-Bahn platforms about a 5 min walk to check in desks
And here is what I wrote after visiting the airport in Munich:
http://beersagas.blogspot.com/2012/05/nearly-at-brewpub.html