Local Chefs Star in Redo of Terminal B at PHL

By Arthur Etchells· 5/19/2016, 10:50 a.m.

This is how you do an announcement. Roll in the jet, roll out the red carpet. Nick Elmi at PHL.

Yesterday afternoon, American Airlines, Philadelphia International Airport and airport hospitality firm, OTG put on an impressive show to announce a $30 million overhaul of PHL’s Terminal B. That overhaul will include eateries from eight well known local chefs and restaurateurs.

The event took place at American Airlines huge hanger at the southern end of the airport. The chefs and restaurateurs, including Top Chef winners Nick Elmi and Kevin Sbraga descended the steps of a sparkling American Airlines plane to take their places along with PHL’s CEO Rochelle Cameron, Cedric Rockamore of American Airlines and OTG’s founder Rick Blatstein. After a highly-polished video about the transformation of Terminal B, samples of each restaurant’s food, plus wine and beer were brought out.

The project has been in the pipeline for a number of years old and several of the chefs involved admitted, that they thought their involvement was dead. When complete, the overhauled terminal will have eight new eateries and thousands of iPads from which to order food right to the gate.

The Restaurant Concepts for Terminal B

Stalin Bedon (Nomad Pizza) – The Nomad owner will open Mezzogiorno, a pizza concept serving pizza similar to his crowd pleasing hits at Nomad.
Joe Cicala (Brigantessa, Le Virtu) – Cicala will take over Cibo at PHL, upgrading the wine bar.
Anne Coll (The Whip Tavern) – Coll plans on following her ethos at Whip Tavern and keeping it local at Boule Cafe, a bakery cafe.
Nicholas Elmi (Laurel) – Baba Bar, a Mediterranean bar. No, Baba Bar will not be the name of his upcoming bar on Passyunk Avenue.
John Myerow and Michael McCaulley (Tria, Tria Taproom) – In addition to opening Germantown Biergarten, a bar with up to 100 beers available, the duo will also be handling the wine and beer at each of the eight new eateries.
Erin O’Shea (Percy Street) – O’Shea will be serving up comfort food at LOVE Grille.
Kevin Sbraga (Sbraga and Fat Hame) – Sbraga will open Liberty Prime, a steakhouse and tavern located in the middle of the terminal.
Hiroyuki Tanaka (Zama, CoZara) – Noobar will serve sushi as well as ramen.

Look for temporary restaurants to roll out in the short-term while the overhaul of the terminal, which will also include 1,000 new power outlets and redesigned terminal seating will take the next 18 to 24 months.