Adogo in the Strib

This weekend, the Star Tribune's Todd Nelson wrote a piece about Adogo, a new luxury hotel for dogs that Shea helped to develop and design with owner John Sturgess. You can read it here:

Elizabeth Flores, Star Tribune

Hotel is suite spot for dogs
by Todd Nelson, Star Tribune

Former Carlson hotel executive and lifelong dog lover John Sturgess aims to teach the pet industry some new tricks with Adogo Pet Hotel, a premium boarding and day care facility in Minnetonka.


Sturgess is applying what he learned in 23 years in the corporate lodging world, including eight years as vice president of development at Carlson Hotels Worldwide, to offering man's best friend a level of service and accommodations "modeled after four- and five-star human hotels."

"I'm taking my experience in the human hotel business and my knowledge of dogs and love of dogs and combining those two to run a professional hotel," said Sturgess, who devoted much of the past eight years to researching his business plan, including making it a focus of his studies while he was completing an MBA at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management.

That background, he believes, along with his ability to raise capital to start the company and possibly expand, distinguish Adogo from mom-and-pop kennels.

"There are a lot of very good people running facilities that didn't necessarily come from the service industry," Sturgess said. "I want to offer a great experience for the dog and beyond that make sure the owner is confident in the facility when they are away."

Adogo also has a prime location on the Minnetonka-Eden Prairie border and a one-stop, full-service philosophy. In addition to overnight boarding and day care, it offers grooming and training by Canine Coach, a dog training company.

Elizabeth Flores, Star Tribune

What is a pet hotel?

The pet hotel is licensed as a kennel, with 93 overnight rooms and indoor and outdoor play areas. The renovation was overseen by the same firm that designed the trendy Crave restaurants. The Minneapolis-based firm Shea also helped develop the Adogo pet hotel brand.

Sturgess said his rates -- from $29 a night for a standard room to $69 a night for a master suite, with a 20 percent discount for additional dogs occupying the same room -- are competitive with other kennels. Lower introductory rates are now being offered. For an extra fee, the staff will walk pets in a nearby nature area.

The pet hotel opened Feb. 1 with 12 employees and expects to add three this summer. Sturgess projects $800,000 in revenue this year, rising to $1.5 million by the end of his third year.

Sturgess said his research indicates spending on pets nationally grew from $34 billion in 2004 to an estimate $48 billion last year.

He developed and is operating Adogo in much the same way he helped build lodging brands such as AmeriSuites (now Hyatt Place), which went from a handful of hotels to close to 220 during his tenure.

Bill Sipple, a former corporate vice president at Carlson Hotels Worldwide who worked with Sturgess there for six years, said Sturgess brings a valuable, perhaps unique combination of hotel operations and branding experience to the pet-lodging industry.

"He's worked extremely hard in putting this together and understands the business in ways very few people do," said Sipple, now managing director of HVS Capital Corp., which does hospitality investment banking but is not an Adogo investor.

Looking to expand

Sturgess has looked at expansion sites in and around St. Paul and has an eye on moving into major cities in the Midwest, Southeast and Southwest. Sturgess, Adogo's majority owner, received financing from several silent partners, including Steve Pricco, an Eden Prairie-based management consultant.

Pricco said he has never owned a dog but was eager to invest in Adogo because of his confidence in Sturgess, whom he has known for close to 10 years.

"He's taking the best of what he's done at the hotels and the best practices from the other [pet hotels] he's used and putting it into one, which is a smart way to go about it," Pricco said.

Adogo customer Joanie St. Peter said she has been impressed with the appearance and the service when she has taken her Eden Prairie family's two dogs -- Murphy, a 6-year-old Bichon, and Dakota, a 5-month-old goldendoodle -- there for day care.

"Where I used to take Murphy was so much more of a kennel," St. Peter said. "When I walked into Adogo, it was very cosmopolitan but very dog-friendly. It's very first-class and clean and it smells good. Quality is at the forefront of what he's doing."

The expert says: Dileep Rao, president of InterFinance Corp. in Golden Valley and a professor of entrepreneurship at Florida International University, said he is impressed with the way his former student -- they met when Rao taught at the Carlson School -- is carrying out his business plan.

"I think it's a national market," Rao said. "It's a huge industry, he's starting as one of the first organized entrepreneurs getting in, and I think he'll do very well."

Todd Nelson is a freelance writer in Woodbury. His e-mail address is todd_nelson@mac.com.

Prairieview Center 100% occupied!

Shea helped United Properties, owners of Prairieview Center in Eden Prairie, with a revamp of their dated retail center. The improvements helped UP get back in the game as a first-class shopping center and as of last week when Little Caesars Pizza opened its doors, the center is now 100% leased. No vacant space is unusual in these times, especially as the average vacancy rate for Twin Cities neighborhood retail centers is 13.2%. The following story from Scott Carlson of Finance and Commerce gives more details...

The grand opening Tuesday of a Little Caesars pizza shop means the 114,876-square-foot Prairieview Shopping Center in Eden Prairie now is fully leased. (Staff photo: Bill Klotz)

Eden Prairie’s Prairieview center 100 percent occupied

by Scott Carlson, Published: March 15th, 2011

The grand opening Tuesday of a Little Caesars pizza shop means the 114,876-square-foot Prairieview Shopping Center in Eden Prairie now is fully leased. (Staff photo: Bill Klotz)

Tuesday’s grand opening of Little Caesars Pizza at the Prairieview Shopping Center marked the arrival of more than just another new tenant for the 114,000-square-foot Eden Prairie retail venue: It also meant the neighborhood center has no vacant space.

That Prairieview Shopping Center is full separates it from the retail pack. The vacancy rate for the metro area’s 309 neighborhood retail centers is averaging 13.2 percent, according to a recent NorthMarq report.

“It is quite an accomplishment and something to be proud of,” said Jim McComb, a Minneapolis retail consultant. “You see a fair amount of vacancy (in neighborhood centers) due to the recession. The real challenge is filling the spaces once they become vacant.”

Representatives for United Properties, which owns Prairieview, say they have worked hard in the past three years to fill the center, which is anchored by a 57,600-square-foot Rainbow Foods supermarket.

United Properties spent nearly $1 million to remodel the center’s façade in 2008, when the vacancy rate was 11 percent. The makeover coincided with an update at the Rainbow Foods store.

“The property had been showing its age, and this façade renovation really brought it back to being a first-class shopping center,” said Matt Sonntag, assistant vice president and asset manager at United Properties.

Nine years ago, United Properties bought the 24-year-old Prairieview center for $10.4 million.

Sonntag said another factor in Prairieview’s recent success is leasing flexibility.

“We have made a commitment to occupancy and are willing to do leases where the market is,” Sonntag said. Market rates “have decreased, and we have met them.”

In Little Caesars’ case, restaurant owner Berry Food Alliance Inc. got a competitive five-year lease, said Fred Berry, director of Berry Food Alliance, which now has four Little Caesars stores in the Twin Cities. The lease included the landlord paying to upgrade Prairieview’s electrical system so that the pizza shop has plenty of juice to run its heavy-duty kitchen equipment, he said.

Berry said he also was attracted to Prairieview because it is anchored by a supermarket, has good visibility and has plenty of customer traffic. Little Caesars is taking 1,485 square feet at Prairieview.

“It is a prime location,” Berry said.

United Properties also recently leased 4,248 square feet to Hirshfield’s, a paint and interior design store.

Sonntag said United Properties is using similar strategies for its handful of Twin Cities’ neighborhood retail centers, which have a combined 97 percent occupancy rate. The centers include the 75,000-square-foot Andover Station in Andover; the 113,000-square-foot Argonne Village in Lakeville; and the 76,000-square-foot Delano Crossing Shopping Center in Delano.

United Properties’ is aiming to have its other metro-area neighborhood centers fully leased, Sonntag said.

“That is always our goal,” he said. “It is definitely possible with only one or two vacancies - at the most” in the other centers.

McComb, the consultant, said he thinks the goal is achievable given that the economy is starting to show signs of a recovery. “We are entering a positive period for leasing,” he said.

Besides Rainbow Foods, Prairieview Shopping Center has 52,500 square feet of detached shop space. Other tenants include Eden Prairie Liquor, Starbucks, Bakers Square and the Empire Beauty School. Recent renovations at Prairieview earned a Shopping Center Tribute Award for Retail Real Estate (STARR) Award from the Minnesota Shopping Center Association.

Strib review of Peoples Organic Coffee & Wine Cafe

Rick Nelson reviews Peoples Organic Coffee & Wine Cafe in today's Star Tribune. We at Shea were happy to help owner Lynn Gordon bring this exciting concept to the Galleria. Read on for Rick's take on the food...

Power to the People(s)

Tom Wallace, Star Tribune
Peoples Organic is lighting up the northwest corner of the Galleria. The fast-casual restaurant is an abbreviated version of the French Meadow Bakery & Cafe.


A slick, suburbanized cousin to the French Meadow Bakery & Cafe has landed in the Galleria.

By RICK NELSON, Star Tribune
Last update: March 9, 2011 - 1:09 PM

"I feel as if we're eating at the airport," said my friend.

It was easy to see why. We were dining at Peoples Organic, and the Galleria's latest restaurant tenant bears more than a passing resemblance to the French Meadow Bakery & Cafe at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The similarities are no coincidence, since both are the work of French Meadow mastermind Lynn Gordon.

In many ways, Peoples is the food court that the Galleria has never had. Or, to be honest, probably never wanted; a Sbarro, or an Orange Julius, within browsing distance of Tiffany and Louis Vuitton? I don't think so. Gordon has forged a democratic and affordable format that caters to a huge demographic, including the breakfast-all-day crowd, the beleaguered shopper in need of an impromptu pick-me-up, the mall worker looking for a grab-and-go meal and the book club settling in over desserts and a glass of wine. Speaking of accessibility, Gordon is also injecting words -- and practices -- such as local and organic into the mix, a depressing rarity in Panera Bread-land.

Here's why I patronize Peoples: It boasts a decent quick-service breakfast, kicking off at 6 a.m. and serving it until the doors close at night. It's not the same-old, same-old a.m. menu, either. A pair of porridges -- garnish them with the flavorful house-made coconut marmalade -- are a welcome change from the usual oatmeal routine, although the oatmeal is pretty terrific too. For something eggier and carb-ier, there's a daily strata, and they're a treat, a kind of crustless quiche but better, and a total reason to make frequent drive-bys to 69th and France. For dessert, I was all over the half-slice of brûléed pink grapefruit, the burned sugar adding a crunchy sweet note to the fruit's mouth-puckering tartness.

In addition, the kitchen wisely puts a deliriously delicious ham, from Fischer Farms in Waseca, Minn., front and center, and with good reason: It's a product so good that it makes me proud to be a Minnesotan. It's shaved thin and layered between tender biscuits or English muffins, or cut into strips to beef up (sorry, pork up) those eggy-cheesy strata, or served with eggs, fresh guacamole and roasted tomatoes on a croissant. Whatever the dish, it was always roasted to perfection, the meat deeply pink and juicy and flavorful, with bits of chewy caramelized edges, and I can't get enough of it. Ditto the crisp, smoky, thick-cut and absurdly delicious bacon, also from Tim Fischer's highly productive family farm.

Expanding the menu

As the day progresses, soups become a major highlight. Among the changes-daily selection, I encountered a spectacular wild rice soup, where the nuttiness of wild rice took center stage among perfectly cooked vegetables and a pristine stock; no overbearing cream base here. Another winner was a hearty chili, its spicy heat sneaking in without becoming the sole flavor note. Best of all are the two standards, available daily. One is a steaming bowl of deeply flavorful chicken stock filled with a colorful blend of avocados, carrots and green onions, the other a bracing ginger-scented broth with carrots, pea pods and brown rice. Both act as meals in and of themselves, and the next time I have a cold, I'm going to soothe it with a one-two punch of these two soups.

There are several pleasant little pick-me-ups for those who have been struggling into the latest Marisa Baratelli gowns in a Dugo dressing room or mall-walking the Galleria's seemingly endless corridors. I like the full-bodied spreads -- harissa-laced hummus, a hearty olive-cream cheese -- and the little rye toasts topped with ricotta and radish or prosciutto and a drizzle of lavender-scented honey. There are perfectly fine cheese and salami plates, and the kitchen turns out a half-dozen nibbles (sunflower seeds roasted with a hint of tamari, wonderful little olives) that pair well with the bar's well-chosen wines and beers.

Perhaps too healthful?

A handful of salads are noteworthy more for their fresh ingredients and plentiful portions than for any category-changing recipes. A large sweets selection runs 50-50, at least for this sugar hound. So many of them fall in the good-for-you category of treats, and where is the fun in that? For every wonderfully chewy peanut butter cookie or delicate vanilla-lavender cupcake, there's a dull apple crisp that's really little more than a glorified baked apple, or an overpriced, barely chocolatey panna cotta with a gluey film over its top, suggesting that it had sat forlornly all day, waiting for a buyer.

I'm also half-and-half on the grill items. That glorious Minnesota ham was born to be paired with gruyère and a hearty swipe of rustic mustard, but wedging it into one of the kitchen's buttery croissants is exactly the kind of overkill mentality that's missing from so many of the desserts. The grilled Rachel was a beaut; ditto the simple and satisfying grilled cheese, built with a chewy ciabatta, and the sweet-hot curried chicken salad sandwich. But the burgers -- drab, underseasoned, overdressed -- were a disappointment, and I rarely encountered an omelet that wasn't greasy and overcooked. An earlier menu featured other, more substantial dinner items, including a swell salmon pot pie and a pair of robust lasagnas, but, alas, they seem to have disappeared.

Other quibbles? Maybe it's just me, but I found that it took a few visits to figure out just exactly how the service line works, a process that should be instantly intuitive, but isn't. I'm not much of a coffee drinker, but I wasn't impressed by the staff's latte-making skills. As for the service, everyone is nicer than nice, but is it too much to ask that someone working behind the cash register be familiar with its operation? As long as I'm carping, why could I never find any orange juice? Oh, and for an enterprise that trumpets its green cred, there's an awful lot of plastic packaging in that grab-and-go cooler.

The setting is an energetic mix of aubergine and chartreuse, augmented by contemporary furnishings and playful patterns in tile and fabric. Everything about the place feels as if it's calculated to reproduce faster than the latest Charlie Sheen vociferation, and for the sake of Gordon's retirement nest egg -- and for mall shoppers everywhere -- let's hope it does. The sweet and attentive woman behind the bar confirmed it for me, although it really didn't need to be said.

"It's designed to be franchised," she said as she refilled my iced tea. "This is the first one, but it won't be the last."

City Pages Reviews Cocina del Barrio

Cocina del Barrio opens in Edina

A bigger, badder Barrio?
By Rachel Hutton Wednesday, Mar 2 2011 from City Pages

With its red-and-black color scheme and bull-themed decor, the new Cocina del Barrio in downtown Edina looks a lot like its sister tequila bars in downtown Minneapolis and St. Paul, right down to the gothic candelabra drowning in drippy white wax. But the third of Ryan Burnet and Tim Rooney's Barrios adds the Spanish word for kitchen, cocina, to its name, emphasizing its expanded food menu. This restaurant is, first and foremost, a place to eat—and maybe have a tequila shot or two.

Cocina del Barrio, which is the first restaurant Burnet and Rooney have launched after their partnership with La Belle Vie founders Tim McKee and Josh Thoma dissolved, tailors their original concept to a broader, suburban clientele. It inhabits the former Coldwell Banker Burnet office building at 50th and France (Ryan Burnet's father, Ralph, heads the company), which seems to indicate that, while real estate around the metro may still be struggling, restaurants, or at least the ones at this intersection, are booming.

The new restaurant is the largest of the three Barrios, with about 180 seats currently available and more to arrive outside when weather permits. It's populated with several funky artworks, including a bright exterior mural and, inside, two bulls on a glittery background and an abstract metal bull's head. There's a three-sided bar in front, a dining room with an open kitchen in the middle, and a private dining table in back that seats up to 18 diners who can sequester themselves behind a heavy pair of sliding doors.


Barrio ups the ante: Wood-grilled achiote
chicken with black beans and sweet plantains

In spite of Cocina's vast size, diners who arrive at, say, 6:30 p.m. midweek might face more than a half-hour wait as after-work drinkers and early diners quickly fill the tables. Edina women are known for their aggressive accessorizing, and there is no shortage of glitz-embellished shirts and jeans, glimmering jewelry, and shiny handbags at Cocina. Surely the George Clooney-esque bartender would be the subject of much whispered discussion if the volume of the music and conversation allowed for anything other than shouting.

Besides the old 24-hour Perkins at Highway 100, Cocina stays open later than any other Edina eatery, serving until midnight or beyond six nights a week and until 11 p.m. on Sundays. It's the first real "bar bar" to arrive in the once-dry city—or certainly the biggest and chicest spot with a 1 a.m. liquor license. (It's also, evidently, Edina's first real foray into the cuisine of Spanish-speakers. Notes from the City Council meeting at which the restaurant's liquor license was approved refer to the business by the name of its Italian alter ego, "Cucina del Barrio.")

A Barrio restaurant wouldn't be a Barrio without an extensive tequila list, and at Cocina pours come in two sizes: the Deadwood, which is a regular shot glass filled to the brim, and the Barrio, a more slender flute that deceptively delivers about twice as much alcohol. Entry-level tequila drinkers might order the Milagro ($4 a Deadwood) in its blanco, reposado, and anejo forms to understand how the spirit's character gets softer and richer as it ages. The beverage menu offers several fruity sippers called "compadres" to chase the spirit, but both times I tried to order anything beyond the blood orange soda or Fanta, the bar was out of the ones I requested.

The lack of inventory likely doesn't concern most of the diners who'd rather drink wine or cocktails. The wine list has been lengthened and several new cocktails have been added, including a couple of classic mixes that substitute tequila for the expected alcohol. Both the Bloody Maria and the Javier Wallbanger are fun—and surprisingly tasty—variations on their vodka-based cousins. If you'd rather have something more exotic, the Jimadore Vacation, a lemon-lime blend with coconut rum, smells like suntan lotion and tastes like it should be sipped on a beach.

Cocina's menu was designed by chef Bill Fairbanks, who helped develop the fare for the original Barrio and now oversees all three kitchens. Many of the Latin American street food specialties overlap with those at the other locations, but Fairbanks has added several lighter, more healthful items, such as seafood dishes and salads. Edina's cake eaters now must prefer lobster ceviche.

Barrio defined itself with a fine-dining spin on casual, south-of-the-border fare, relying on careful ingredient sourcing and painstaking prep work to lend its dishes brighter flavors and more visual elegance than those at the typical taqueria. The repeated small plates are just as good as those at the other two restaurants. Guacamole is made with avocado mashed at perfect ripeness and comes with hand-cut tortilla chips that are thick and crispy, oil-soaked without being greasy. Such careful execution justifies spending $7 on something you'd be perfectly capable of whipping up at home. The chicken and black bean tostada, which vanishes in a few rich, crunchy bites, is a familiar item from the other Barrio menus, as are several of the tacos (neither the tongue tacos or the hard-shelled, ground beef-filled "gringo" tacos made the cut at Cocina). The fish taco also remains a favorite: Mahi mahi is delicately fried in a beer-batter suit and served on two corn tortillas speckled with cabbage, cucumber, and tomato.

Among the new small plates, Fairbanks's version of the jalapeño popper is a spendy (three peppers to a $7 order) but more refined take on the bar food version of chile rellenos. The peppers are filled with white Oaxaca cheese, so they're far less gooey if you're concerned about detonating a gut-bomb.

The Cocina menu adds several new salads to the Barrio repertoire, among them one that pairs ahi tuna with an avocado and tomatillo salsa, cucumber, radish, orange, and peppery red watercress, a green rarely seen on local menus that looks rather like maroon basil sprigs. (In fact, Fairbanks's menu introduces diners to several lesser-known ingredients, including Mexican huitlacoche, or corn smut, and sour oranges.)

The ceviche selections have also expanded, as have seafood dishes in general. Unfortunately, with the exception of the spicy shrimp ceviche, the other seafood I sampled didn't shine as much as I'd hoped. A generous portion of lobster ceviche looks stunning, as the red-and-white meat is dressed with avocado, hearts of palm shaved into rings, and scallion slivers. But when I took my first bites, the lobster lacked flavor—it wasn't nearly as sweet and briny as its appearance seemed to promise. The wafer-thin yucca chips ended up being the best part of the dish.

Another problem with some of the small plates: The seafood gets masked. Crab tastes most glorious cracked straight from the shell and squirted with a little lemon, not buried beneath a tortilla. Cocina's filling might just as well have been chicken or cheese. The same problem plagued the $5.50 shrimp tamale and the $11 order of lobster-filled empanadas.

Among the six new entrées, or "platos fuertes," seafood also features prominently. The caldo de mariscos, or seafood soup, is chock full of whatever's fresh—mussels, clams, fish, prawn—but its ruddy broth, a traditional blend of ancho and guajillo peppers and garlic, had all the appeal of leftover bathwater. While sometimes the wait staff could stand to be a little less zealous—those intent on finishing a dish need to protect the last few bites before the plate is preemptively swiped—its attentiveness was appreciated when my party ordered the red snapper with king crab. An employee noticed us picking through the dish and searching, mostly in vain, for bites of the crustacean, and gracefully whisked out a small bowl of extra meat for our party and another that had ordered the same item. The dish was tasty, but the fix was necessary to make it worth its $26 price tag.

I had better luck with the wood-grilled achiote chicken with black beans and sweet plantains, though the entrée list's real winner is the pork rib chop. The bone-on, two-inch-thick trophy comes from local pork producer Compart Family Farms and is brined for 48 hours, then wood grilled so it's pleasantly crusted on the outside. But inside, the pork chop will likely be plumper and juicier than any other you've sliced in your life: It eats almost like a steak. With accompanying corn pudding, roasted mushrooms, and kale, the dish is a great example of the kitchen's capabilities.

For sweets, a pumpkin cake comes with salted caramel ice cream, which is flavored with cajeta, or Mexican goat's-milk caramel, actually, and the unwitting diner wouldn't be faulted for wondering if the cream had spoiled. But get past the odd funk of the first bite and the sourness adds a nice complexity. If you'd rather keep things simple, stick with the crowd-pleasing churros, Mexico's airy, sainted doughnuts that taste even better dunked in liquid chocolate.



So far, Cocina del Barrio's menu doesn't have quite the level of consistency that the original Barrio did when it launched—but, admittedly, the first Barrio set a high bar. With two successes already under its belt, the Barrio team should be admired for upping the ante and establishing an even loftier goal.

Tortas Frontera among 10 Best Airport Restaurants

Shea recently collaborated with Rick Bayless on a new airport concept, Tortas Frontera, which opened last month in Chicago's O'Hare airport. There is a new trend of airports elevating their food and beverage options and offering fresh, local concepts to travelers. Shea has been involved with several new concepts recently and we talk about them in our new edition of our Shealink newsletter. CLICK HERE TO VIEW   Today, USA Today reports on Frommer's Travel Guide's picks for the 10 best US airport restaurants, which includes Tortas Frontera. Read the full article below:



Tortas Frontera by Rick Bayless


Frommer's picks top 10 airport restaurants
By Gary Stoller, USA TODAY

It once was a toss-up at the bottom of the food chain: airline food or airport food?

Times have changed. Some airlines are offering nutritious items in the air, and airports are increasingly featuring local restaurants with high-quality, healthy food.

"Airports are trying to improve the experience for travelers, and part of that is bringing in restaurants serving fresher, local foods," says Rick Lundstrom, editor in chief of PAX International, a trade magazine that covers airport dining trends." Airports want to create an atmosphere of the city they're in and make the airport more of a destination for shoppers and diners."

Many frequent business travelers have noticed.

Mike Noblit of Escondido, Calif., says the quality of food at U.S. airport restaurants is much better than it was 10 years ago.

"It seems airports are bringing in the high-quality choice to meet the demand," says Noblit, a senior vice president in the consumer electronics industry. "Most of the time, there are lines outside the best places."

At USA TODAY's request, Frommer's Travel Guides named its 10 best U.S. airport restaurants. Two are at New York airports. The others are at airports in Atlanta, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Seattle and Raleigh-Durham, N.C.

"We've picked places that serve food you'd eat even if you weren't trapped," says Jason Clampet, senior online editor for Frommers.com.

Frommer's primarily chose local restaurants but ignored local eateries that "still serve food that tastes like airport food," Clampet says.

The newest top 10 choice — Tortas Frontera — opened last month in Terminal 1 at Chicago's O'Hare airport and plans to open a second outlet in Terminal 3 in May. It's the creation of celebrity chef Rick Bayless, who operates three other top Chicago restaurants. He says he aims to "set a new standard for what airport food should taste like."

Too many choices
Tortas Frontera specializes in Mexican griddle-baked sandwiches, such as smoky garlic shrimp, which includes seared shrimp with chipotle garlic sauce, black beans, poblano rajas, goat cheese and arugula. The Cubana sandwich includes smoked pork loin, bacon, black beans, cheese, cilantro cream, chipotle mustard and avocado.

Frommer's says it's difficult to pick the top restaurant at JetBlue's new Terminal 5 at New York JFK airport because the terminal has more high-quality dining options than are available at most airports.

But the pick is Deep Blue Sushi, which has a modern Asian menu created by celebrity chef Michael Schulson, the former executive chef of New York's highly rated Buddakan restaurant.

Deep Blue Sushi serves such fare as crispy lobster rolls, Kobe beef tataki rolls and red miso-glazed Chilean sea bass.

At New York's other airport, LaGuardia, there's a "high-end" food court in the Delta Air Lines terminal — with a steakhouse, Prime Tavern, and a French bistro, Bisoux — but the guidebook publisher instead names Custom Burgers by Pat LaFrieda to its top 10.

The airport "gives you the same meat you'd get at the sit-down Prime Tavern for a lot less dough, along with milkshakes from the local Ronnybrook Dairy," Frommer's says.

At the world's busiest airport, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International, Frommer's has a top 10 pick: One Flew South, in Terminal E. The restaurant has "a strange and interesting mix of Southern and Asian influences: pork belly with black-eyed peas vs. seaweed salad and a sushi bar," Frommer's says.

Not just a top airport restaurant, One Flew South receives high ratings among all of Atlanta's restaurants, according to travel and dining guide publisher Zagat Survey.

Two West Coast airport restaurants also make Frommer's top 10.

At Seattle airport, Ivar's in the central terminal is a spinoff of the downtown restaurant of the same name that has been serving chowder and seafood since 1938. Besides the chowder, other specialties are fish and chips, scallops and chips, and clams and chips.

Encounter at Los Angeles International Airport "is truly unique, a simultaneously hip and kid-friendly restaurant inhabiting a wacky outer-space-themed building," Frommer's says.

Seafood at Boston Logan

One well-known chain — Legal Sea Foods — cracked Frommer's top 10 with its restaurants at Boston's Logan International Airport.

"Legal Sea Foods is part of an international empire, but Boston is where the empire started, and there's actually a different Legal concept in each Logan terminal," Frommer's says.

Terminal A, after going through security, has Legal Test Kitchen, which has an abbreviated menu and offers fast delivery. Terminal B, before security checkpoints, has Legal C Bar with plenty of beer options and a full menu. At Terminal C, before security, is the chain's traditional restaurant.

The restaurants in Frommer's top 10 and others serving top-quality food at airports "reflect a greater appreciation for food among the population at large, not just travelers," says David Lytle, editorial director of Frommers.com.

"We want fresh ingredients and local tastes rather than cookie-cutter options from food-court purveyors," Lytle says.

Highflying food

Guidebook publisher Frommer's says these are the best 10 restaurants at U.S. airports:
Atlanta , One Flew South (Terminal E)
Baltimore , Obrycki's (Gate B-11)
Boston , Legal Sea Foods (Terminal A, after security, has Legal Test Kitchen; Terminal B, before security, has Legal C Bar; and Terminal C, before security, has the traditional restaurant)
Chicago O'Hare , Tortas Frontera (Terminal 1)
New York-JFK , Deep Blue Sushi (Terminal 5)
New York-LaGuardia , Custom Burgers by Pat LaFrieda (Delta Terminal)
Los Angeles , Encounter at LAX (center of airport before security)
Minneapolis , Ike's Food and Cocktails (Concourse E)
Raleigh, N.C. , 42nd Street Oyster Bar (Terminal 2)
Seattle , Ivar's (central terminal)