Regional Airport and Provenance welcome new dining choices

If you fly into or out of Shreveport Regional Airport and your stomach is making more noise than an airplane engine, your options to quieten those sounds are limited.

But there should be a new arrival by the first of next year. Make that three new arrivals.

Three eateries – including two with nationally-known names – plan to open, replacing the current offerings.

Uno Pizzeria & Grill, The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, and la Madeleine will give you a variety of food and beverage choices.

“Periodically, we do customer surveys on our website and here at the airport,” said Mark Crawford, marketing and public relations manager for the Shreveport Airport Authority. “We’re always asking about ways we can improve things, whether it’s the parking lot or the food service. The feedback we got from customers all the time was that they wanted different food options. Many times, the survey results mentioned having a national brand in the airport.”

But airport management went a step further.

“When (people) said they wanted a national brand, we wanted to make sure it was something they couldn’t get in Shreveport,” Crawford said. “So, we didn’t want another Subway or another Burger King or something like that, which you can get anywhere in Shreveport. We wanted something unique to the market.”

Two of the three brands meet that desire. As soon as you clear the security checkpoint, you will see Uno, which bills itself as “The Birthplace of Deep-Dish Pizza.” Based in Chicago – with 100 locations in the United States – Uno’s full menu will be available. In addition to pizza, you can enjoy burgers, sandwiches, pasta and salads.

Each of the airport’s two concourses, which you walk to catch your flight, will have a The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf location. Established in Southern California in 1963, there are more than 100 locations in the U.S. The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf’s menu features a variety of coffees, tea and frozen drinks. The airport’s location will also serve selected items from Uno’s menu.

If you aren’t flying but waiting on someone to arrive, you haven’t been forgotten.

La Madeleine, a French bakery & Café’, will be located on the first floor, near the baggage claim area. You may not even have to get out of your car to eat or drink.

“The airport’s hope is la Madeleine will offer curbside service,” Crawford said.

“Even if you are not traveling in or out of the airport, but you want something from la Madeleine and you don’t want to drive all the way over to (the Youree Drive location) and you’re on this side of town, you will be able to order something on the website or the app, and they will bring your food out to you curbside.”

The bulk of the airport’s customers are those who live in the Shreveport-Bossier area. Crawford said those are the people the airport wants to please most.

“About 30 percent of our traffic that comes in and out of the airport are people who live somewhere else, that are flying here, and they’re flying somewhere else. Seventy percent of the people who use our airport are local, so that’s really who we tend to make sure are accommodated very well.”

To learn more about Shreveport Regional Airport, you may visit: www.flyshreveport.com.

In South Shreveport, four new food options – along the lines of coffee and desserts – are on the way.

Rhino Coffee, Southern Maid Donuts, Marble Slab Creamery and Great American Cookies will set up shop in a building under construction at the corner of Southern Loop and Provenance Rhino and Southern Maid will be at one end (with a Boulevard. drive-thru), and Marble Slab and Great American will be at the other.

Rhino and Southern Maid are expected to open early this fall. Marble Slab and Great American are expected to open soon after.

“These are things that not only the neighbors, but everybody who lives in that area – the moms driving the kids to school in the morning, the drivethru coffee shop – there has been a demand for that for as long as I can think that there have been houses constructed out there,” said Hilary Bransford, a commercial agent representing Provenance Commercial Development.

There will be another food tenant as part of Provenance Commercial Development Phase 2, which Bransford isn’t ready to announce.

“It won’t be dessert,” Bransford teased. “It will be a specific type of food, and something the neighbors at Provenance have certainly wanted for a long period of time. They will all be very excited about it.”

Two of the already announced tenants have strong ties to Shreveport.

Southern Maid is legendary for its hot, glazed donuts. Southern Maid has been family-owned since it began in 1937.

“Everybody loves Southern Maid Donuts,” Bransford said. “They certainly have deep roots in our community. People support that and are very excited.”

The Provenance location will be Rhino’s third – following the original one on Southfield Road and the one on Texas Street downtown. Its menu highlights hot and cold coffees, teas and sweets.

“Rhino, from the moment they opened their doors originally across from Pierremont Mall, they were immediately a really big hit locally,” Bransford said. “The owner of Rhino, his family is multi-generational from Shreveport. They have very deep roots in this community.”

You won’t necessarily have to grab your coffee or sweets and drive away. There will be a large, covered patio and an extended, open area with tables for you to sit and satisfy your taste buds.

“People are really going to enjoy that, because there will be events taking place in front of the patio,” Bransford said. “It will be a really nice way to bring the community together. That’s the whole purpose of the traditional neighborhood development, which Provenance is. To bring the neighbors out of their houses, so they all kind of enjoy that camaraderie of watching events, being together and knowing your neighbors.”

To learn more about Provenance, you may visit: www.yourprovenance.com.