Flaps Down, Thumbs Up

For $250 a pop, Bill Adams wanted a better burger. So he built one.

Actually, the “$250 Burger” only costs $12.95, as long as you pull up to Springdale’s Flaps Down Grill in a Chevy instead of a Cessna. The basic “$100 Burger” won’t set you back a C-note, either.

Adams figured it cost him $250 every time he fl ew somewhere for a meal. At landing strips from Colorado to theCarolinas, the food just wasn’t worth it, he said.

So he jumped at the chance to open a gastro-pub at Springdale Municipal Airport, vowing to offer fellow pilots and air travelers a better bite to eat.

The signature $250 burger is based on a ground Angus and brisket mix, cooked to order and topped with caramelized onion, fresh lettuce and tomato and thick-cut bacon.

“I know the chef at Crystal Bridges and got a list of suppliers from him,” Adams says. “It’s more expensive, sure, but thequality starts with the ingredients.”

Sometimes, that includes tossing tradition out the window. The reuben keeps the traditional marbled rye bread and sauerkraut, but swaps out the corned beef - “cheap meat,” Adams says - for sliced steaks of grouper. For Sunday brunch, the eggs Benedict eschews ham in favor of a crab cake, and a homemade remoulade replaces the traditional hollandaise sauce. The beer cheddar dip recipe changes with the seasons, as do the Arkansasbased microbrews on tap. (For pilots, restricted by the FAA’s eight-hour “bottle to throttle” no-alcohol rule, coffee, tea and soft drinks are also off ered.)

Prone to airsickness, or maybe just afraid your meal will get cold while you’re distracted watching planes on the ramp and runway? If the fi let mignon with truft e butter sounds like too much, lighter offerings include a BLT and ashrimp/pasta dish named after Adams’ own M20E Mooney airplane.

Even without the views across the airport, both inside and on an outdoor balcony, the airport theme dominates. The bar top is patterned after a runway, and the napkins folded in the shape of jets. A bigger balcony, still in the planning stages, will be shaped like a wing.