OTG, the technology-based airport restaurant operator, recently opened a 10,000-square-foot Food Hall at LaGuardia Airport’s Terminal C, in New York City. Like in its partnership with United Airlines at Newark Liberty, the Delta terminal at LaGuardia received a refresh in food options as well as the installation of more than 100 iPads used for ordering and paying.
At each iPad terminal, customers can browse menu items and place their orders. As OTG told us last year, the system is designed to help lift revenues while decreasing costs due to labor and voids; they also help restaurants dispatch staff when needed, allow on-the-fly changes to menus, and remove the need to handle cash. In addition to the iPads, there are also 90 self-checkout units, made by NCR, that support contactless payment like Apple Pay. So in addition to credit cards, customers can pay with their Apple Pay-compatible iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch devices. OTG says it may also update the iPads to accept Apple Pay in the future.
For foodies, they’ll appreciate the new restaurant options that are based on fresh, locally sourced ingredients, backed by names like Andrew Zimmern (of Bizarre Foods fame), Jamison Blankenship, and Pat LaFrieda. The ingredients come from New York and New Jersey-area farms, as well as the popular Union Square Greenmarket in New York City.
“For the first time ever, the food hall becomes an open chef’s kitchen where travelers can grab to go on one side of a café, or pull up a seat and dine in on the other,” says OTG CEO, Rick Blatstein.
