USA. SSP America has opened the Five Borough Food experience, a showcase of New York City’s diverse cuisine, at John F. Kennedy International Airport Terminal 4. It is described as “a first-of-its-kind food truck eatery”.
The 3,528sq ft restaurant offers travellers four separate and distinct food stations as well as a full service bar. With a market scene of theatrical, open, interactive kitchens, housed in vintage vehicles, Five Borough Food Hall offers guests Asian, Greek/Middle Eastern and Mexican food. It also houses a fast casual sandwich shop.
SSP America sourced the vintage vehicles from California, where they were restored and customised for the project over ten months.
A proprietary SSP America food concept, Five Borough Food Hall will change its menus and cuisines to meet market demands and current food trends, said terminal owner and operator JFKIAT.
Terminal 4 celebrated the restaurant’s grand opening with a ribbon cutting ceremony and food-sampling in the terminal’s retail hall. The offer includes:
Mango Taco Truck: Housed in a 1987 Chevy Box Truck, Mango Taco Truck brings passengers a fast casual, build your own taco experience. It features corn tortillas and fillings that include marinated steak, chili-rubbed chicken and cochinita — the traditional Mexican slow-roasted pork from the Yucatán.
Global Sandwiches: Serving up sandwiches from a fabricated 1956 International Harvester Metro, Global Sandwiches showcases items that include chicken bánh mì, Genoa salami ficelle, turkey reubens and muffalettas.
The Apothecary: Full service bar drinks are served up from a 1966 VW Bus at The Apothecary. The bus is “stretched” to hold the open bar counter in the middle and crowned with an awning accented by twinkling carnival lights.
Dromos: Serving up healthy, Mediterranean cuisine, Dromos offers overstuffed pitas, platters and salads filled with beef and lamb shawarma, tuvak/chicken, and falafel combined with Mediterranean flavours of mint, parsley, lemon, cucumber and olive oil.
Canal Street Noodle House: Canal Street offers ‘build your own’ noodle dishes with broth bases of ginger beef and Thai chili and galangal Tom Yum. Guests can choose combinations that include garlic ginger shrimp, bulgogi steak and fire grilled lemongrass chicken.
Coffee Bar/Grab and Go: Five Borough Food Hall includes a Coffee Bar where passengers can buy hot java coffee as well as a large grab and go chill case styled to look like a New York City subway stop. This is filled with prepackaged sandwiches, drinks and snacks.
“Terminal 4 already features an unparalleled selection of food & beverage offerings and we are proud to welcome this unique and interesting concept to our retail hall,” said JFKIAT President and CEO Gert-Jan de Graaff.
“With Five Borough Food Hall, we are able to expand our culinary offerings to the 20 million annual travellers who pass through our doors – allowing us to continue to cater to many different types of appetites. We are grateful for our continued partnership with SSP America, which allows us to offer the best names and products in the world right here at Terminal 4.”
SSP America CEO Michael Svagdis added: “JFK’s Terminal 4 is highly regarded as having one of the most authentic culinary portfolios of any terminal in the world and it is an honour to work with the wonderful IAT team. Our latest concept celebrates the authentic flavours of New York City with a superbly high-quality menu of fresh ingredients, but also offers passengers an engaging environment. We look forward to serving the passengers of T4 at this very cool new concept.”
Five Borough Food Hall joins more than 25 other restaurants in Terminal 4’s retail hall, including Danny Meyers’ Blue Smoke on the Road, The Palm, Shake Shack, and a number of other concepts.
Over the past five years, the terminal’s retail space has been expanded to offer more than 122,200sq ft of shopping and dining.
