Sandi Bapp works as a waitress on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014, at Carol's Airport Cafe in the Warren County airport in Queensbury. Bapp has worked at the Airport Cafe for five years and will continue to work at the cafe's new location in Hudson Falls.
-Megan Farmer
QUEENSBURY -- Warren County airport will be without a restaurant in the coming months because the proprietor of Carol’s Airport Cafe has chosen to close her eatery as the airport’s operator prepares to build a new one.
Carol Twiss will close the airport eatery on Sunday and re-open her restaurant on Wednesday in the former Fish Fry Cafe location on Main Street in Hudson Falls.
That will leave the airport without a restaurant until at least the middle of next year as the airport’s fixed base operator, Rich Air, run by developer Rich Schermerhorn, goes forward with construction of a new eatery on the Warren County-owned property.
Schermerhorn said he hopes the new, expanded restaurant would be open by mid-summer.
“We were really hoping she (Twiss) would be the one to take it over,” Schermerhorn said.
He said construction will start on the new restaurant in the coming weeks, and he hopes it will open mid-summer next year. Until then, the airport will have food service.
Twiss said a number of factors played into the decision to move.
She said Schermerhorn didn’t want the new eatery to serve breakfast, that he planned to put operations at the new restaurant “up for bid” and that he wanted the new restaurant to serve alcohol.
Carol’s Airport Cafe is renowned for its breakfasts and does not have a liquor license.
“I’m 70 years old. I didn’t need to apply for a liquor license,” she said.
Schermerhorn said he planned to have the new eatery run as a “full-service” restaurant, where patrons may want a drink with their meal, and that Twiss was given the right of first refusal to run it.
Twiss’ departure concerned some Warren County supervisors, who worried that the restaurant was a popular spot for breakfast and with recreational pilots who fly there specifically to eat at the cafe.
It could hurt the county’s revenue if fewer pilots are flying in, they said.
“She had really garnered a lot of loyal customers. Everyone at the airport is sad to see her go,” Queensbury at-Large Supervisor Mark Westcott said.
Chester Supervisor Fred Monroe said he hoped the new restaurant would serve breakfast.
Queensbury resident Travis Whitehead questioned the wisdom of selling alcohol at a county-owned airport. But airport manager Ross Dubarry pointed out it’s common for small airports like Warren County’s to have a restaurant that serves alcohol.
While the new eatery is being built, Schermerhorn said the old restaurant next to the terminal that Twiss is leaving will be converted to office space over the winter.
The county will have to rework its contact with Rich Air in light of the changes to restaurant use, county Attorney Martin Auffredou said.
-Source: http://poststar.com
A sign for Carol's Airport Cafe is shown on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014, at the Warren County airport in Queensbury. The cafe will be relocating next week to Hudson Falls. -Megan Farmer
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