This Ain’t Your Father’s Airline Lounge

Food Features Airport lounges
This Ain’t Your Father’s Airline Lounge

Airport luxury lounges have long been the haven of the stale club sandwich and the generic bourbon on the rocks. Now if you are a country club fare fan, don’t worry, plenty of lounges out there are still serving those. But one in Boston is trying to change the tone by pumping up the flavors.

British Airways recently opened a new and improved lounge in Boston’s Logan Airport to service the newly popular A380 flights to Heathrow (as well as all the others). In addition to increasing the physical size of the lounge — it’s huge — they specifically put a lot of emphasis on the food and beverage program. With lots of fresh, local, seasonal ingredients and some thoughtful selections at the bar, this could be the best airport food I’ve ever had.

Since most British Airways flights from Boston leave in the evening to make the overnight hop to London and beyond, the lounge offers a full dinner service to all visitors each evening.

When you walk in, exhausted from the flurry of the TSA line, seeing a buffet filled with things like locally sourced feta and and crispy churros just warms the heart. No settling for a day-old turkey and cheese here!

It’s clear that the chef is making an effort to present international offerings. The first time I visited the lounge, we were treated to a wonderfully tasty tasty taco bar and last time a bao station was the star. Quite honestly, when was the last time you had some solid make your own bao, with all the fixings at an airport? I dare say never?

Photo by Jacqueline Neves

Another typical airport lounge problem that BA has solved is seating. There never seems to be enough seating at these places for you to be able to both charge your phone and eat your dinner without elbowing a European businessman. This lounge has ample dining, seating and working areas. When you first walk in there are some posh seating areas, each with charging ports, then you get to the dining room with buffet and plenty of long high end cafeteria tables (with charging ports underneath) and if you keep walking you pass more of that posh seating on both sides until you reach the back windows, which features a gigantic circular bar with a fabulous view of the skyline. Oh — and did I mention that about halfway down your tour you will pass the showers?

Typically, at an airport lounge when you were finished with your meal you would just leave your plate wherever and you’d rush off to go find somewhere to plug in your phone. And yet again, BA has stepped it up, this lounge is actually appropriately staffed. While you won’t receive waitered service unless you are a First Class passenger sitting in the designated area, you will have your table bused almost immediately when you are finished. The staff is helpful, fast and courteous.

Once you’ve had your fill of the chic cafeteria tables, I recommend heading inwards, towards that large circular bar facing Boston. Enjoying drinks with a view makes waiting for your flight go by a lot faster.

Raspberry margarita.jpgPhoto by Jacqueline Neves

The bar features premium spirits and a bunch of house made purees, syrups and fresh fruit that makes for some creative cocktails. Ask what the special cocktail is that day, hopefully you’ll be as lucky as I was and it will be something like this raspberry margarita or this raspberry lemonade mint julep. But a classic Aperol Spritz is always a good choice too!

With a full dinner served nightly, quality cocktails, a wonderful view, ample seating and an attentive staff, British Airways has upped the airport lounge game in all the right ways.


Jacqueline Neves is a food and travel writer based in Boston. For more of her work visit her blog JQLouise.com.

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