Mmmm...hundred dollar burger.
February 5, 2004 11:33 AM   Subscribe

The Hundred Dollar Hamburger. A pilot's guide to fly-in restaurants.
posted by gottabefunky (16 comments total)
 
So where was the hundred dollar burger? It does not appear that he has been to either Japan or Iceland.
posted by PrinceValium at 11:53 AM on February 5, 2004


I'm thinking the $100 burger takes into account the cost of flying to the restaurant.

(But I could be wrong...)
posted by Cyrano at 12:10 PM on February 5, 2004


I wouldn't consider McDonalds or White Castle (actual listings for some Illinois airports) hamburgers worth $100 to eat.

But that's just me.
posted by SisterHavana at 12:19 PM on February 5, 2004


The $100 refers to the fuel spent in small planes getting from one municipal airport to another.

A neighbor used to have a plane and one day after he did some repairs and wanted to take it for a test flight, we flew about three hours from north San Diego county, ended up eating some enchiladas in Coalinga in central california at a crappy diner, then turned around and headed back. We covered 300-400 miles each way I'm guessing and it cost him hundreds of dollars in fuel, making the so-so enchiladas pretty expensive.
posted by mathowie at 12:46 PM on February 5, 2004


Man, some of these pilots are either lazy or super busy. In my hometown they only list a few "good restaurants" and the Warehouse Deli (where I used to eat as a kid; my mom worked in the industrial complex there), but the airport is maybe 2 miles from town.

This is pretty interesting, not in terms of restaurant recommendations, but in looking at one's home town (provided it has an airport) from a totally different perspective. People's perceptions of a place are determined in part by their mode of transportation. Different modes filter out and highlight different aspects of a place.

Most people come into a town (especially a podunk boontown like Grass Valley) via the freeway. That runs through the middle of town, so what they see is incredibly different from a pilot eating with a few bored tariff analysts and aluminum sign manufacturers out in the sticks.
posted by Coda at 12:49 PM on February 5, 2004


Yes, the $100 refers to the cost of flying there. It's not so much the gas, but the maintenance costs of a plane. A Cessna Cardinal burns about 10 gallons an hour. AvGas costs about $2.50/gallon, so at 140mph you'd have to fly 500+ miles to spend $100 in gas.
The food at most airports is awful. But I've used the $100 Hamburger to find great barbeque in San Antonio; the nice folks at the airport loaned us their crappy old car. And I'm itching to fly into Harris Ranch for a good steak.
posted by Nelson at 1:02 PM on February 5, 2004


AvGas costs about $2.50/gallon, so at 140mph you'd have to fly 500+ miles to spend $100 in gas.

Geez, that's much cheaper than I'd expect. It cost's me nearly $2 a gallon for Auto gas! With my old beater getting maybe 12 miles a gallon or so, I can go about the same distance (give or take 100 or so miles given fuel consumption) for $100, but it just takes me twice as long! Good part is, I don't have to pee into a stadium pal on the way.
posted by Pollomacho at 1:09 PM on February 5, 2004


(that is if I don't want to)
posted by Pollomacho at 1:10 PM on February 5, 2004


The food is cheap, it's the getting there that costs the money. It's worth it though.

For anyone in the Boston 'burbs, I highly recommend Nancy's Airfield Cafe at Minuteman Airfield in Stow. Easy to get to via car, bike, or plane, it's one of the greatest little restaurants in the area. They use mostly fresh, local ingredients from the surrounding farms. Homemade soups, seasonal wine dinners (not if you're flying in though...), and the best burgers I've ever eaten. And where else can you watch small planes and helicopters landing while you eat?

As a former flight student, I've eaten my share of $100.00 burgers and omelettes in the area. Most airport places are greasy spoon diners. Nancy's is nothing like that.
posted by bondcliff at 1:13 PM on February 5, 2004


I immediately checked for some local restaurants, and it repeatedly misspelled a local (Northampton, MA) restaurant as "Witzwilly's" instead of "Fitzwilly's," but got the URL right nonetheless. That's an almost acrobatic amount of distraction, I'd say ;)
posted by abcde at 1:45 PM on February 5, 2004


So where was the hundred dollar burger?

off topic/

You can get a hundred buck hamburger here.

Not sure how good it is. I've, um, never bought one.
posted by justgary at 1:50 PM on February 5, 2004


Darn. For a minute there I'd thought someone had surpassed the $42 Kobe Beef Hamburger.
posted by majick at 3:10 PM on February 5, 2004


You can get a hundred buck hamburger here.

Heh, justgary beat me to it. My sister lives near there.
posted by Ufez Jones at 3:46 PM on February 5, 2004


Nelson, you might want to drive by the Harris Ranch land off Interstate 5 before you eat that steak. It's probably the most disgusting place you can find in California. You smell the shit about a mile before you drive by, where you'll see tens of thousands of cows pressed together, standing on a stripped landscape with huge piles of manure everywhere. For fun, stop and take a picture and see how quick the security guards reach you.

It's enough to make you seriously consider never eating beef again.
posted by letitrain at 5:23 PM on February 5, 2004


What's an FBO?
posted by sklero at 8:57 PM on February 5, 2004


"What's an FBO?"

Fixed Base Operator. A service at an airport that provides things that pilots and planes need. Fuel, Maintenance, flight training, plane rentals, etc.
posted by bondcliff at 6:49 AM on February 6, 2004


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