Bon Appétit (BA) is opening a restaurant at JFK Airport, marking a major physical expansion for the 70-year-old food media brand. The Condé Nast publication will debut a two-level branded restaurant and market at JFK’s new Terminal One next year, Forbes reported, featuring a ground-floor bakery, deli, and coffee bar, plus an upstairs restaurant and bar. Screens throughout the space will display the magazine’s video content, with some programming available on flights.
The airport play is just one piece of a three-pronged expansion strategy from editor-in-chief Jamila Robinson, who took the helm in 2023. In the Forbes profile, she also details the launch of an AI-kitchen assistant trained on BA’s massive recipe archive (think: a “modern-day Butterball turkey hotline,” she said). It will also launch the brand’s inaugural Gear of the Year awards — recommendations designed to monetize BA’s years of product authority.
It’s an ambitious expansion of a legacy food publication, signaling how media brands are evolving beyond content into commerce and experience in response to AI’s effects on how publications connect with audiences. While food magazines have long licensed their names for products and events, a full-service airport restaurant with integrated digital content takes that model to another level. The move also positions BA to reach travelers, potentially introducing the brand to new audiences.
Steve Cuozzo in New York Post reports out the losses projected for Japanese restaurant Masa after it shed a Michelin star, “at least 25 percent of its business once its current reservation list runs out,” according to one restaurateur who knows the damage of a lost Michelin star.
Year-round dining is back on the table
A City Council hearing today will address proposals that could restore permanent roadway dining and let grocery stores claim sidewalk space — but critics say pre-Thanksgiving timing buries public input. The proposals would also cap pedestrian paths at eight feet regardless of sidewalk width, potentially giving restaurants more than 17 feet for seating on wider sidewalks, reports EV Grieve.