Andrew Mitchel
Eastern Washington University
Portland, Oregon’s PDX airport does things differently. I first passed through it on my way to the ASFS conference in June 2025. Tired from a long flight and knowing a long bus ride awaited me to get to the conference in Corvallis, I envisioned trudging through a dingy, dark, industrial space and buying an overpriced food item, likely a Sysco burger repackaged at an uninspiring ‘brewpub.’ This just feels like what we have been conditioned to expect out of air travel, even as, despite rising fuel costs and generally precarious economic times, more and more Americans travel for work and pleasure according to the U.S. Travel Association.
I did not encounter this anticipated drab and depressing experience when I got off my plane. Instead, I entered Portland’s vibrant, new main terminal that local officials call PDX Next. It is explicitly Pacific Northwest, inspiring local pride by sourcing all of its wood from local forests and tugging on nostalgic heartstrings by bringing back an iconic carpet design. Most critically, though, for my rumbling stomach after a transcontinental flight, is the overwhelming presence of affordable, local concessions throughout the airport. My seemingly mundane passage through a space of everyday transit became my first glimpse into local food, not to mention the organizational ethos of a city and region. I found a brightly lit terminal featuring a vibrant wood ceiling, an admittedly cool carpet (I do like teal), and a slice of pizza not only from a local place (Sizzle Pie), but sold for a reasonable price! A new airport terminal and some affordable, local food are great, but can this really evoke local pride and nostalgia?
Though the main purpose of an airport is to move people efficiently, they also serve as something of holding pens of commerce. Many American airports feature commercial strips not dissimilar from a mall, be it the aptly named MSP Mall in Minneapolis (including its Prince store), the seemingly endless Terminal 4 Retail Hall at New York’s JFK airport, and the remodeled San Francisco airport with its MuseumStore. While some opt for this mall-adjacent experience of global opulence and sleek design, other airports like PDX strive to establish a sense of place that links more closely to the destination.
Food serves a key role in this second option: it offers a key view into local culture within a largely monotonous experience. Airports can offer Nashville hot chicken in, well, Nashville; Café Du Monde beignets in New Orleans; and “walleye-n-chips,” which Christopher Schaberg ordered at MSP because of his personal “desire to get a little closer to the land beyond the plate glass windows and reverse thrusts of jet engines” (2016: 172). The balance, then, between corporate eateries turning a profit, the complexities of airport operation anyone who has seen a “We Proudly Serve Starbucks” sign knows well, and claims of ‘local-washing’ within these efforts all denote that while they may want to evoke local flair, it can be a difficult task. Can captive travelers become local consumers?
Allow Molly Prescott, Aviation Communications & Media Relations Manager from the Port of Portland, to tell us more about how PDX strikes this balance between efficient and kitschy, or indeed local and global. She said they have worked to “capture authenticity and build shared prosperity” for the city and region. She expanded by noting that “We see the airport as a reflection of our community… the new terminal project [is] the perfect opportunity to double down on our commitment to capture the spirit of the Pacific Northwest… Concessions are also at the core of creating a sense of place. That’s why 100% of the concessions in the new PDX project are local or regional brands.”
It is not, however, enough for these eateries to be local. It is also about creating an inviting space for people on the move to spend time. Molly added that this is part of the design: they worked hard to “capture the feeling of strolling through Portland’s vibrant neighborhoods, surrounding by trees, plants, and draped in natural sunlight.” I concur with this imaginary; even in a region typically known for rain, PDX’s main terminal is brightened by the sun, offers many large garden-like fixtures of trees and other plants, and features ivy and other hanging plants that cover walkways and parking lots just outside the terminal.
But the focus here is on the food, and they too are directly enmeshed into this space. The branding for the local favorites like Deschutes Brewery and Blue Star Donuts matches their branding and color scheme seen around the city. I even witnessed a Blue Star employee tell a traveler they had run out of donuts the last time I flew through PDX a few weeks ago. Clearly they were arriving fresh daily if they had no more, or simply did not have enough to meet demand.
There are plans to expand this program at PDX; Molly added that “once all the new main terminal locations are open, 80% of our 65 total concession locations will be local or regional brands.” This intentional effort to bring local flair to an airport dining scene may not seem exceptionally ground-breaking, but this “leading with local” mentality appeals to travelers and benefits the airport financially, as Molly noted that “in 2024, sales per enplaned passenger (SPEP) at PDX was $15.03, while the average for airports around the U.S. was around $12.50.” While promoting people to spend more money at an airport is not my motivation or goal, I would certainly say that, when the option to spend less for something I want is present, I would jump at the opportunity, especially if I know it is a local product I can find elsewhere in the city at another time like a draft beer at Deschutes or an fancy donut at Blue Star.
As shown with the spending statistics and probably in the fact that I have taken the time to document my experience enjoying a slice of pizza, there a great deal happening here. PDX’s approach reframes a typically liminal space that is the airport terminal. The design of this programs does involve, as Molly told me, “a much more labor-intensive approach to work directly with these local businesses [that] have mostly individual leases.” This may explain why some other airports are less inclined to follow suit with this tactic. However, that a traveler’s first, or last, view of this region adheres to local design, offers local food, and serves as a moniker of local pride forms, in my view, a lasting connection to the region for travelers and tourists alike.
To return to the food, the pizza was good! It wasn’t $9.50! This experience was certainly a fascinating first experience of Portland, but into a potential future of this provision of local food at airports nationwide. Rick Bayless’ Tortas Frontera at Chicago’s O’Hare truly fuses the global and the local, and has provided quick-service Mexican fare using locally sourced ingredients for years now. The local airport restaurant as a conceptual idea and concrete presence is, clearly, rich with anthropology complexity, and PDX’s model displays how air travel, amidst a culture of consumption, can pursue a deeper commitment to place.
Many thanks to Molly Prescott from the Port of Portland for answering my questions, and to David Beriss for his edits and suggestions.
Bibliography
Schaberg, Christopher. The End of Airports. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016.
