Wine flights taking off in Newark Liberty’s Terminal C

by Mike Barish on

I tend to be a little anal-retentive when it comes to getting to the airport on-time for a flight. As such, I end up arriving a good 2+ hours before take-off. The upside is that, in all of my travels, I have only missed two flights because of my tardiness. The downside is that I’ve had to kill a tremendous amount of time in airports. Despite the fact that they are made for waiting, airport terminals are pretty much the epitome of lame. Most are devoid of decent food options and full of stores that sell schlock and overpriced bags of mixed nuts. But in recent years, some terminals have started to…get this…cater to travelers! And Newark Liberty Airport’s Terminal C is now one of those terminals.

Terminal C is home to Continental Airlines and some of the best food and drinks you will find in an airport. For anyone who has ever forced down some scolding hot Sbarro’s pizza or hockey puck-like fast food burgers while waiting for a flight, Terminal C’s offerings are a sight for sore stomachs.

There’s the Heineken Lounge, Sam Adams bar and Guinness Irish Pub, which provide travelers with a chance to make flying a tad more bearable without having to sit in a drab airport bar. And Vino Volo offers customers wine flights of selections from around the world. And if you find a wine that you like, you can purchase bottles to take away or have shipped to you.

I never understood why waiting for a flight had to be so torturous. Not everyone can afford to have access to lounges, but that doesn’t mean that the main terminal should look like a mall food court. There’s a happy medium and Newark Liberty Airport’s Terminal C seems to have found that and even exceeded it a bit. Now my only concern is getting distracted at one of the bars and missing my flight!

2/3 of Brit pubs to increase beer prices

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Nearly a fifth of British pub owners are increasing beer prices now, taking the national average above the current level of ₤3 a pint. Ten percent are looking to pop an extra 15 pence on every glass, with two-thirds looking to push prices higher by 5 pence to 10 pence. The price of a beer has tripled over the past 20 years, obviously making it a better investment than that Enron stock you’re hoping will bounce back.

A new 2 percent tax is contributing to the elevated cost of intoxication, though operational expenses (like updating menus and cash registers) are leading to the extra imposition.

Seven percent of pubs will absorb the extra costs until September. Ninety-seven percent don’t give a shit about your need to imbibe at a value.

Drink makes you sing for your spirits

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Get what you want, even if you have no idea what you need. That’s the point of Drink, it seems, a new bar in Boston. The bartenders are expected to figure out what’s ailing you and fix the situation with a carefully concocted cocktail.

Strangely, there is no menu. If you tend to scan (or scour) the list at your local dive, Drink will jar your system. Instead of reading and deciding, you’ll actually have to communicate with somebody. You form a relationship with your bartender, telling him what you’re feeling, what you like and how you want it.

So, instead of thinking about what you normally shove down your throat to the cheers of the crowd, focus on your thoughts. Think about your day and the mindset in which it has left you. Share this with your mixologist, and enjoy the cure.

[Via The Atlantic]

Europe struggles to stub out smoking

by Jeremy Kressmann on

All across Europe, increasingly health-conscious governments have been banning smoking in public places like hospitals, train stations, bars and restaurants. Austria, one of the few remaining countries in Western Europe to not yet institute a ban, will be tightening their anti-smoking rules beginning in 2009.

The halcyon days of carefree European smoking look to be a thing of the past, right? Apparently not. As the Wall Street Journal reports today, European businesses and citizens are fighting back against the bans, lobbying desperately to hold on to their precious fire sticks.

Instead of creating across-the-board smoking bans as originally hoped, countries like France, Italy and Germany have allowed a variety of exceptions to the new rules. Federal lawsuits in Germany have allowed many restaurants to stay cig-friendly, while in Italy the Health Ministry reports there are nearly as many smokers now as when the country-wide bans went into place in 2005. It’s hard to blame them when the Italian model of sanctity himself, Pope Benedict XVI, has been known to light up on occasion.

So what’s really going on here? Is it that smoking is truly an inextricable component of European identity, as iconic as that Parisian cafe and a cup of coffee? Or is this something more political, a fight for personal rights in the face of governments that want to penalize us for our indulgences? Whatever the outcome, expect European rules surrounding public smoking to be clouded in a choking haze of indecision for the foreseeable future.

FabSearch – A website for the out-of-the-know

by Annie Scott on

Do you ever read a review of some random restaurant in a national publication and think “gosh, if I ever go to Boise, I should totally eat there?” Some people I know even keep files for this kind of thing with newspaper and magazine clippings, and my friend Josh keeps a spreadsheet.

I’m lazy. What do I do? I go to FabSearch.com.

Then, I click on the random city I’m headed to for the wedding, or the story, or the Eiffel Tower (big cities like Paris are on there, too), and recent articles about hot places to stay and places to eat from local and national publications pop up! It’s like having a friend in that city who lays around and reads magazines for you.

You can totally wow your friends with this wealth of knowledge. You could be all “Oh, I read about it in the Financial Times,” and if they tried to call your bluff and checked the Financial Times, you’d be right, even though you’re too lazy busy to read it.

Check out the site – I looked up my hometown of Minneapolis and the recommendations were all pretty good!