Foodies Delight In New John Wayne Airport Eateries

NEWPORT BEACH, CA — If you're a foodie who travels through John Wayne Airport, you are in luck. Seafood, steak and Vietnamese food are coming to John Wayne Airport under concession agreements approved Tuesday by the Orange County Board of Supervisors.

Hoping to bring "local flavors" to the Santa Ana airport, the board approved the following concessionaires:

• Taps Fish House;
• Greenleaf Gourmet Chopshop;
• Brodard, a Vietnamese quick-serve restaurant;
• The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf; and
• La Boutique, a duty-free-type concept featuring a variety of high- end goods.

The biggest surprise was the selection of Brodard, which has restaurants in Fountain Valley and Garden Grove.

County staffers had recommended Jamba Juice, which tied with Bruxie, a quick-serve waffle restaurant in Orange County, in the county's Request for Proposal scores.

A Subway sandwich operator, which will be displaced by Brodard, also had a higher score than Brodard, which had the lowest score.

Orange County Supervisor Michelle Steel and Board Chairwoman Lisa Bartlett chaired the ad-hoc committee that oversaw the RFP process.

"We wanted to bring the local flavors of Orange County" to the airport, Steel said.

Bartlett said the airport will be adding more businesses in another phase of bidding, in which vendors who fell short in the first round can resubmit their proposals. Those vendors can also vie for spots in other projects, such as the Dana Point Harbor revitalization.

"Even though a firm was not selected today, keep in mind ... there are so many other opportunities," Bartlett said.

"I'm excited about bringing local concepts and brands to the airport, but my concern is the cost" for rentals, Supervisor Doug Chaffee said. "We're probably close to $20 per square foot per month to have a space there."

Most of the new businesses are expected to open sometime next year.