New airport concessions coming soon

As Charlotte Douglas International Airport grows, there's more going on out there than traffic jams and full parking decks: The airport is also adding some new places to eat.

A Wolfgang Puck kiosk opened recently on Concourse C, with sandwiches, salads and fresh fruit for sale. Brioche Doree, a café and coffee chain, also recently opened on Concourse E, replacing Zia and Mrs. Fields.

This fall, three new concessions are slated to join the lineup at Concourse E. Whisky River (yup, the same one with a mechanical bull uptown), a pizza place called PZA and a new Starbucks are all scheduled to open then.

Whisky River, based at the EpiCentre, is owned by NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr. The club's Jacksonville location closed in January without notice, according to local media reports.

Until the three new restaurants are finished, a Farmers Market snack stand and an attached bar are open in Concourse E. They're operated by HMS Host, the company that oversees food and beverage concessions for Charlotte Douglas, and will close once construction on the new restaurants is done, Charlotte Douglas said.

Here's a link to a map of the terminal to help orient you.

And in case you were curious, Starbucks at the airport bring in a lot of money. How much? Well, in 2009, the last year I could find revenue figures in public documents, the seven airport Starbucks cafes generated $8.5 million in sales - about $1.2 million each. That's a whole lot of coffee.