End of the Jonesy's Era

[mjc]

Short version: Jonesy's Steakhouse at the Napa Airport is CLOSED, and I was stunned at the news.

Long version: It had been about a month since my wife and daughter went flying, so we decided we'd all fly to dinner together on Sunday. We have a several preferred airport restaurants for breakfast and lunch, but fewer for dinner. Jonesy's in Napa and, of course, Harris Ranch are the favorites. We decided on Napa as it is closer, more temperate, and a prettier flight.

My daughter is nearly three and so insists that she get to sit in the front seat. She also insists that she is In Charge and that she is the Captain, but I told her that she needs a certificate for that and until she has one she can only get as far as First Officer. It isn't Captain, but she does get to sit in the front seat. I pointed out that it is a promotion from her previous position of Navigator, so she eventually relented. Anyway, off we went.

We landed at the Napa airport and requested restaurant parking from Ground. The whole story leads up to this: the Ground controller told us that the restaurant is closed and has been for several months. He says there is no food available at the field. The ipad saved the day by pointing out open-for-dinner restaurants at nearby airports, so we ended up at Livermore, where we had a lovely dinner because the restaurant there was open.

I found out later that the resturant has apparently been closed for a year: http://napavalleyregister.com/news/local/article_9c9c7a74-aa60-11df-8724-001cc4c002e0.html.

The moral of the story is: it doesn't matter how long the restaurant has been there, call them anyway.

[Immelman]

That's too bad Michael. On a related note, Zuniga's restaurant, on the field at Watsonville, closed its doors abruptly last week. These are signs of sad times, indeed. Airport management is looking for a replacement tenant restaurant.

Edit to add: Its not just airport restaurants. A good friend of mine from college and his wife bought a Thai restaurant, a really good one at that, in Portland a couple years ago. These last several months have been really, really bad for them.

[Jeff_S]

Had the same issue at Habersham in North Georgia (KAJR). There was a great family restaurant just 1/4 mile from the airport that had a a traditional Sunday brunch...it was called The Runway Fish House.  Flew up there last weekend without calling ahead of time, only to be told the restaurant had closed a few weeks prior.  We ended up taking the crew car and finding something else but it's just not the same.

[Bolter]

Quote: mjc

The moral of the story is: it doesn't matter how long the restaurant has been there, call them anyway.