By Rick Davenport,
Texas Transportation Institute
It was easy for non-aviation enthusiasts of Washington County to grow up without ever knowing where the Brenham Municipal Airport was located. They may have heard that race car driver A.J. Foyt houses two of his planes at the airport, but chances are they couldn’t tell you how to get there. After all, it’s nestled in the trees off a once seldom traveled county road that intersects Highway 105 about five miles north of the city’s historic downtown. That rural highway intersection is home to an expansive and visible junkyard that almost begs you not to turn there. But in October 2002, something changed all that.
The grand opening of the Southern Flyer Diner put the Brenham Municipal Airport on the map, not only for the residents of Washington County, but for pilots across the country, too. In fact, it was the pilots who helped first spread the word about the good food and the 1950s atmosphere, complete with a checkerboard floor, jukebox, old fashioned malts and the young waitresses who wear authentic, colorful poodle skirts. An elevated, airy dining deck that seats 80 overlooks both a section of the runway and a tranquil pond, dubbed Lake Brenham by the poodle girls.
The Southern Flyer Diner became an instant hit with the pilots, who already have a romantic spirit embedded in their DNA. Many of the flyers who attended the restaurant’s grand opening nearly six years ago regularly make the flight from their home base to sample the homemade Brenham wings, cheeseburgers, onion rings, chicken fried or hamburger steaks, numerous dinner selections (the chicken parmigiana and fried catfish are among the favorites) and made-from-scratch sides.
Pilots, who have long flown to airport restaurants to eat, call their lunch or dinner excursions “$100 hamburgers” (see sidebar). They voted the Southern Flyer Diner the #1 “$ 100 Hamburger” fly-in location in the country for 2008. The top ranking is courtesy of ”The $100 Hamburger” Web site subscribers, who have propelled the Brenham Airport diner into the top-ten list every year since the survey began in 2006. That’s a pretty tall order, considering all 1,675 airport restaurants are in the running. (For more on ”The $100 Hamburger Web site, see http:/ /www.lOOdollarhamburger.com/.)
It all started in 2000, when Jack Hess approached the city with the idea of opening an airport restaurant. But in order to make it work, it had to be a package deal-he had to manage the airport, too. ‘We went through a lot of trials and tribulations in getting the terminal and the restaurant built under one roof, but it finally happened,” he says. ”The day of the grand opening, there were planes flying in from all over, and the automobile traffic was lined up down the road.”
Although both have aviation backgrounds, Jack and his wife, Janet had no restaurant experience. So, the idea of operating one in an isolated location-known to just a handful of residents-added to the gamble. “I just went along with Jack because anything he decides to do is successful,” says Janet. “But, I was a bit worried.”
Janet had a right to be apprehensive. Food and beverage distributors delivering products to the airport restaurant had to call to get directions. The Hesses tell stories of “people stopping by the Chamber of Commerce for directions, and even they didn’t know where we were. And we were members!” It was clear that the Hesses had a lot of competition among visitors: Blue Bell, bluebonnets and ”The Birthplace of Texas.”
Thanks to the consistently good food and word of mouth, most Washington County residents know exactly where the airport is now. Many of them join the pilots for lunch or dinner everyday except the four days the restaurant is closed: Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day and Easter. The clientele is evenly divided between flyers and those who drive to dine.
Before the restaurant came along, Washington County residents had little reason to travel to the airport. Now, starting around 11 :00 a.m. every day, cars begin turning off Highway 50 at the junk yard, down Airport Road and onto Aviation Way. They travel past the A.J. Foyt hangers on the left, hoping to beat the crowd to the Southern Flyer Diner.
