A five-year effort to revamp preflight food at Rhode Island T.F. Green International Airport could mean a Saugy hot dog washed down with a ‘Gansett beer before boarding.
The Rhode Island Airport Corporation on Thursday approved new long-term food and beverage concession contracts to provide those and other offerings.
The primary contract goes to Grove Bay Hospitality Group, the Miami-based firm that has been running restaurants since the COVID pandemic in 2020.
A smaller contract will go to Saugy Inc., the 150-year-old Cranston frank maker that bills itself as “Rhode Island’s First Hot Dog.”
“It’s exciting to have a presence in the terminal,” Mary O’Brien, president of Saugy said after the contract was approved by the state Airport Corporation’s board of directors.
Saugy being located behind the terminal’s security checkpoint means travelers, including those who may have moved away from Rhode Island, will be able to take iced, packaged hot dogs on their flight home, she said.
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The overhaul of restaurants at T.F. Green has been a long process halted and complicated by the pandemic.
The deal approved Thursday will see the opening or transformation of eight eateries in the terminal into new brands.
In addition to the Saugy restaurant, the plans call for a Narragansett brewery restaurant and beer hall, an upgrade of Whalers Bar, a Burger King, a new Federal Hill Italian Eatery and Bar and another Dunkin’ coffee shop. Grove Bay plans to convert its Providence Provisions restaurant into a “locally branded restaurant.”
“The proposed restaurant concepts and designs will complement [the Airport Corporation’s] plans for a refresh of the airport interior and is expected to result in a total investment of all retail, food and beverage of $10.6 million,” an Airport Corporation summary of the deal said.
Airport management had hoped to begin the food and drink overhaul back in 2019 and had selected a winning bidder when COVID hit, bringing air travel to a near-standstill and scuttling the deal.
Grove Bay arrived amid the doldrums and agreed to open two restaurants, Providence Provisions and Wolfgang Puck Express. It later opened Rhode Island Burger Company and Whalers Bar in the food court.
The Airport Corporation went out to bid for a new master concession agreement again in 2021, but passenger volumes were still depressed and the request for proposals was canceled for lack of interest.
The corporation tried again last fall, but again “no responsive proposals were received.”
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Management went back to the drawing board last winter and put out calls for “a mix of nationally and locally branded restaurant concepts.”
That resulted in the deal with Grove Bay and Saugy.
Under the deal, Grove Bay will pay the airport 13% of revenue on food and non-alcoholic drinks plus 16% on alcohol, according to RIAC spokesman John Goodman. Saugy will pay 12% of revenue for food and non-alcohol beverages plus 15% on alcohol.
To help the vendors overhaul the restaurants, the Airport Corporation is loaning Grove Bay $4.5 million and Saugy $150,000, both at 5.5% interest.
The new and refurbished restaurants will open or reopen gradually between the end of this year and 2025, the plans say.
Mark Hellendrung, CEO of Narragansett Brewing Company, said he hopes the new space the company is opening with Grove Bay will have some of the spirit of its Fox Point brew pub.
And having a presence at the airport should help grow the brand in some of the two dozen states outside Rhode Island where it is sold but might not be as well known, he said.
“We are pumped we will be one of first new spaces to open, by the end of the second quarter of next year,” Hellendrung said. “It’s good to shake the dust of COVID off.”