Tara Duggan

After all the noise about the new food court at the renovated Terminal 2 at San Francisco Airport, I’m not sure what I expected when we arrived on Saturday for its community open house. As we shuffled through the line to preview what is, after all, a glorified mini-mall, I heard someone say, “It’s weird to be at the airport and not be going anywhere.”

It was indeed surreal, but I had to check out what some people had described as an airport version of the Ferry Building. It’s not that, but T2 does have features that blow away airport offerings you’ll find almost everywhere else in this country, and most are from local companies, with a sustainable focus.

Inside Napa Farms Market, you can grab a mini Acme baguette and hunk of Cowgirl Creamery cheese for a flight, or order a Tyler Florence rotisserie chicken. After a red-eye, I might even stick around long enough for Live Fire’s Mission breakfast pizza, with chorizo, cilantro, queso fresco and egg. That and a cappuccino from Equator Coffee of San Rafael, a roaster known for its organic and fair trade coffees, which opened its first retail branch here. (The terminal also houses a Peet’s and Starbucks.)

Naturally tart Pinkberry fro-yo is a healthy between-flight snack, and the sit-down restaurant choices are of a similar caliber of that you see at SFO’s International Terminal.

Two that will open later this week are TV chef Cat Cora’s tapas and cocktails place, and Plant Café Organic, which specializes in a solar—cooked veggie burger—fitting in well to the guidelines for T2 vendors to use compostable materials and local, organic ingredients.

The vendor that inspired the most escape fantasies for me is Vino Volo, which means wine flight in Italian. The wine bar has locations in 12 other airports, and has been waiting to get a spot at SFO. It serves wine by the glass or the bottle (also to go) and a variety of wine flights,which seem a fine way to while away a layover.

While I left the T2 open house feeling like it was just another airport terminal, I realize that’s a bit jaded. We’ve all been stranded somewhere in between flights where the only quick bite is the dreaded Cinnabon. Here, the alternatives are a scoop of Three Twins ice cream, a Kara’s cupcake or a Frog Hollow peach. Sweet.