EE Grimshaw
Google
I deeply despise the term "hidden gem," but I'm hard-pressed not to use it here. This place is in the middle of nowhere, and I was only aware of its existence from local word of mouth, despite this being essentially my original HQ and my high school being a very short ride down the road (and good luck even seeing this from the road). Subtle doesn't even begin to describe this location.
I came here this past Sunday for lunch with some chums, including two honorary young pup chums. The young pups were primarily brought along in the hopes that there might be some airplane action optics for them, so on that basis alone it was a success - we had at least two planes land in front of the windows, prompting a mixture of squeals and shushes. We also took a quick walk outside afterwards to look at the planes parked (feels like there must be a better word it) off to the side of the runway, which was an exciting mini-adventure for them despite the nippiness. Just to underscore the random area this is in, you have to drive off a county highway past the entrance to Beneduce, and then into the Sky Manor Airport, which requires driving all the way around and behind the airport buildings until you ultimately arrive at the restaurant. You earn this one.
The interior of this place is pretty memorable too - I've been in a few local airport cafes before, and this is on par with them. Lots of wood paneling that feels like an unintentional homage to everyone's grandparents' basement (where were the Dean Martin records?), coupled with airplane swag on the walls and just an overall old school diner feel. I don't know that this restaurant is necessarily historic in the sense that it's been here for decades, but it's cozy and seems lived in, if that makes sense. Very cool.
I'd been emotionally preparing for breakfast/brunch but didn't realize that that specific menu cuts off before noon, so I hemmed and hawed quite a bit at the lunch menu. None of the burgers or sandwiches were really speaking to me so I went with the Arugula Salad with the grilled chicken add-on, featuring sweet potatoes, cranberries and a soft boiled egg. It's pretty rare for me to go salad, but this is the kind of I'm into, and it delivered. Huge portion (I was decently hungry and probably left a quarter of it on the plate), and all of the sweet and savory perfectly complemented each other. If you're into salad chains, it reminded me a lot of the harvest bowl option at Chopt or Sweet Green but honestly better.
The one miss for me was dessert. The pups were clamoring for chocolate cake, so I agreed to split a slice of the red velvet with my chum. I had a bad feeling when I stuck my fork into the side and actually had trouble getting a bite size worth separated from the rest of the slice - it was that stale. I'm guessing that particular cake was at least a day old, which literally and figuratively left a bit of a bad taste in the mouth. Pretty avoidable mistake, in my opinion. The pups seemed delighted with their option, so I suppose you take the victories where you can.
The service was very good. The young pups probably prompted the hospitality to tick up a notch, which is more than fine. Our waitress was very friendly and stopped by regularly. When we ordered the chocolate cake for the pups to split, she then sliced that up on her own initiative so each pup actually got their own small slice. Nice touch.
Would love to try out the breakfast menu in the future, which probably has more intriguing options overall for me but regardless this was a solid win to jumpstart the year. I imagine the airport optics are also way better when you have the luxury of hanging out outside in non-polar vortex weather.