Boise Airport unveils new food and drink vendors: Flying M Coffee, The STIL, Waffle Me Up
The Boise Airport this week unveiled a host of new restaurants and retail outlets coming in the next year.
All of the current airport vendors will be replaced or updated, and the changes will come in phases to ensure concessions are consistently available, according to Jennifer Kronberg, a spokesperson for the airport.
The lineup features several local food and beverage businesses, including Blue Sky Bagels, Waffle Me Up, Form & Function, Flying M Coffee, The STIL, Simple Bites, Idaho Brewers United, Telaya Wine Co., Create Common Good and a Treefort-branded restaurant. Bardenay will remain with a reimagined design.
The new shops are expected to open by October 2025.
National favorites like Starbucks, Protein Bar & Kitchen, Pizza Hut and Wendy’s are also on the list of new vendors.
“Just seeing this makes me want to come to the airport early,” Boise Mayor Lauren McLean said at an open house for the concessions on Wednesday. “Normally I run in and I feel like I failed if I get there 10 minutes before boarding. I try to make it five because this airport is so efficient. Now, I think I might need to come spend a little more time at the airport.”
The city of Boise owns the Boise Airport, but concessions are operated by Delaware North, which handles food; and Paradies Lagardere, which runs retail.
Delaware North and Paradies Lagardere ironed out the new contracts, which will run for 10 years. The fresh retail shops will include local vendors like Teton Valley Brands, Weiser Classic Candy, Banana Ink, Buy Idaho, Capital City Public Market and Hello Beauty Full.
Travelers will also find mobile and QR-code food ordering, self-operated kiosks and digital wallet payments.
The restaurants and brands were chosen after a public solicitation process for proposals, the Idaho Statesman previously reported.
Liz Grzechowiak, senior director of brands and concept development for Delaware North, said Wednesday that the overhaul sought to highlight what makes Boise special, like its local food, music and arts scenes.
“We’ve got The STIL, which, I’ve never experienced beer flights with ice cream flights,” Grzechowiak said. (STIL is an acronym for “sweetest things in life.”) “I did go there three times in a row, three visits in a row and I have no regrets. Waffle Me Up — you are going to see the most delightful waffle experience, and serving not just waffles in the morning but chicken and waffles in the afternoon as well.”
The last time the airport put together a new concession program was over a decade ago in 2014, according to airport Director Rebecca Hupp. Since then, the number of annual travelers has grown tremendously.
The Boise Airport is the state’s primary air hub. It broke its yearly passenger record for the second straight year in 2023, with nearly 4.8 million passengers, and is on track to top that number again in 2024, according to data from the U.S. Department of Transportation.
Boise added numerous flights to its lineup this past year, including low-cost flights to the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and upcoming flights to Orlando, Florida; and Bozeman, Montana.
“We literally have a million more passengers coming through this terminal every year than we did the last time we did this,” Hupp said. “It really was time for us to improve the offerings, increase the number of choices that passengers have and continue to showcase the great things that are in Boise.”
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