This story is featured in the May/June 2025 issue of ESSENCE.
Gone are the days of settling for bland food during your travels. Today, great cuisine can be found at nearly every airport—even in the busiest terminals across the country. Thanks to a rising wave of Black restaurateurs, you no longer have to endure subpar dining or resort to expensive snack hauls in place of a real meal. Below are a few culinary gems, brought to life by Black men and women, located in airports from coast to coast. Whether you’re craving a famous chili bowl, a classic po’ boy or a dining experience worthy of not one but two James Beard nominations, these airport spots are sure to satisfy your flight-fueled cravings.
ONE FLEW SOUTH
Atlanta
Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
Concourse E, E26
Forget the chaos of travel and slip away to One Flew South—a gourmet oasis where a bento box can be breakfast, lunch or dinner and the cocktails are exquisite. Created by Terry Harps of Global Concessions and Jackmont Hospitality (the food-service management company cofounded by Maynard H. Jackson, Atlanta’s first Black mayor), this restaurant offers globally inspired cuisine. Delectable dishes include the Deviled Egg Experience, Collard Green Ramen and Tandoori Chicken. Its “airport sushi” is fresh and delicious—including the raved-about Kamikaze dish (tuna, salmon, spicy mayo, Hamachi, isonoyuki and eel sauce). And the popular Uncle Nearest 1884 premium whiskey is the main ingredient of both the Grown Up Mimosa for breakfast (if that’s your thing), and the Old Fashioned for dinner. One Flew South was the first airport restaurant to be nominated for the James Beard Award, including nominations for Outstanding Service in 2014 and 2015.
BEN’S CHILI BOWL
Washington, D.C.
Dulles International Airport/Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport
Concourse B, B73/Between Concourses B and C
The home of D.C.’s beloved Half-Smoke (a chili dog of the highest order, to most)—the original Ben’s Chili Bowl is a piece of enduring history. Howard dental student Ben Ali, a Trinidadian immigrant of Indian descent, started his namesake restaurant with his then fiancée Virginia Rollins, a Black woman, in 1958. Located on the iconic U Street, a historic jazz hub, the joint has served everyone from Duke Ellington and Miles Davis to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and former President Barack Obama. Daily operations are now in the hands of the couple’s children; meanwhile, the eatery expanded to a space in Reagan National Airport in 2014 and to a new location in Virginia’s Dulles Airport in February of this year. Whichever airport you land at or take off from, warm up with your chili of choice—and cool off with Virginia’s Banana Pudding Milkshake.
JACKSON SOUL FOOD
Miami
Miami International Airport
Concourse E, E2
With roots in the family-owned Mama’s Cafe from the 1940s, Overtown’s Jackson Soul Food is one of Miami’s most historic eateries. As a small child, owner Shirlene Ingraham stood on a crate to help sell her family’s famous biscuits at Mama’s Cafe. Now in her 60s, she’s as dedicated as ever to serving authentic, delicious cuisine with Jackson Soul Food. In 2024, she brought her restaurant’s flavors to Miami International Airport with her third location. Shrimp and grits, fried okra, fried green tomatoes, smothered pork chops, catfish, cornbread muffins and banana pudding are popular items; and they make arriving and departing as warm as any Southern family dinner any day of the week.
LEAH’S KITCHEN
New Orleans
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport
Level 2, Toward C Gates
It doesn’t get more NOLA than the Chase family. For decades, their matriarch, iconic chef Leah Chase, who transformed a po’boy shop into the beloved Dooky Chase restaurant, kept visitors well fed at the spot. Guests have included everyone from civil rights leaders to ESSENCE Festival faithful. Since 2019, grandson Edgar Chase IV—current executive chef and operator at Dooky Chase—has paid homage to her at the airport with Leah’s Kitchen, where Leah’s portrait on the wall greets hungry travelers. Take a seat and enjoy meals inspired by Leah’s signature dishes. That includes servings of the popular gumbo and fried chicken, as well as Louisiana redfish, shrimp and grits, and New Orleans–style bread pudding.
CHICKEN + BEER
Los Angeles/Atlanta
Los Angeles International Airport/Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport
Terminal 3/D5
When Ludacris released his fourth album, Chicken-n-Beer, back in 2003, he probably didn’t foresee it inspiring Southern soul food restaurants in two of the country’s busiest airports. But after landing at Atlanta’s airport in 2016, this spot took flight to LAX in 2023; its huge, can’t-miss location is visible as soon as you make your way to or from a Delta flight in Terminal 3. Fried chicken is a given on the menu, but the honey-butter biscuits at breakfast, blackened catfish for lunch and dinner, and collard greens, dirty rice and rosemary tater tots, available anytime, are pleasing those from many different area codes.
KARDEA BROWN’S SOUTHERN KITCHEN
North Charleston, South Carolina
Charleston International Airport
Central Marketplace
If you’re traveling into or out of Charleston International Airport, get your taste buds ready for popular Food Network chef Kardea Brown’s new restaurant. Brown says she’s the first person of color to have a culinary establishment in this location and she’s proudly exposing travelers to the beauty and history of Gullah cuisine. What makes this accomplishment all the more sweet (or savory) is, for her first brick-and-mortar establishment, she’s opened the space in her hometown’s airport. And Brown isn’t playing around with her menu. Enjoy the deviled crab dip, or the fried chicken buttermilk biscuit with sweet-chili crunch sauce and a sunny-side up egg. You now have another great reason to book a flight to Charleston.