US: Historic terminal at Kennedy Airport to have fine dining by Vongerichten

As recently as the early 1960s, air travel was still glamorous and exciting; you dressed up to get on a plane, and looked forward to the food aloft. That was when Trans World Airlines opened a futuristic new terminal, designed by the Finnish architect Eero Saarinen at what was then best known as Idlewild and is now Kennedy International Airport. The 200,000-square-foot-building, with its sinuous curves and swoops sheathed in white penny tiles, is a city, state and federal landmark, connected to Jet Blue’s Terminal 5. But it has not been used for 18 years. Now it is being brought back to life as the lobby of the TWA Hotel, to open this spring with a restaurant and a lounge run by the renowned chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten, working with Tastes on the Fly, a company that specializes in airport food. “It’s an exciting project; food in airports has been improving a lot,” said Vongerichten. The restaurant, with 200 seats, will have the same name as its predecessor in the original terminal: Paris Café. Next to it will be the Lisbon Lounge (another name from the original terminal), serving cocktails and food. “We thought Jean-Georges was a perfect match for Paris Café because of his French background,” said Tyler Morse, the chief executive and managing partner of MCR and Morse Development, which is renovating the terminal and building the hotel. Morse said they were researching TWA in-flight menus from the 1950s and ’60s, and planned to bring back versions of some dishes, like chicken Champagne with truffles. <br/>