Incredibly, it’s true: air travel now offers some of the best coffee in the country. Aloft, the Delta Shuttle and Horizon Airlines now serve Starbucks; and the Seattle-based coffee company has outlets in 16 airports, with more on the way. In fact, throughout the nation a new kind of mass-market food is popping up-and it’s about time. Asians get the world’s best street food; we get limp, gray hamburgers under heat lamps. Europeans get fresh bread and pate at charming cafes; we get imitation milkshakes shoved at us by sullen teenagers. But increasingly, Americans looking for a quick meal can find fresh, tasty, sometimes even nutritionally correct fast food.
There’s California Pizza Kitchen, with more than 70 outlets serving designer pizzas, focaccia sandwiches, even an organic salad; average cheek is about $10. Fresh, light Mexican-style fast food can be found at small but growing chains like La Salsa, rated “best Mexican” by several California publications. Or ZuZu, where diners watch tortillas being made by hand in an open kitchen. Or Macheezmo Mouse, where all food is baked, grilled or steamed–no frying.
Good food is even showing up in malls, on campuses and at other locations that have long gotten away with serving swill to captive customers. The cafeterias at Ikea, for instance, the chain of 18 humongous home-furnishing stores, feature such items as Swedish meatballs or smoked salmon, all for less than $6.
None of this means that McDonald’s is shaking in its shoes: the chain did $15 billion worth of business in the United States alone in ‘94. “There’s a limited market for quality,” says Charles Bern-stein, chains editor of Restaurants and Institutions, a trade publication. “Not all of these new places are going to survive.” But Tim Zagat, copublisher of the Zagat restaurant guides, believes the demand for better food in inexpensive restaurants is here to stay. “It’s a national phenomenon,” says Zagat. “These places are responding to the needs of working people who simply have no time to cook but want decent, wholesome food.” If he’s right, highway travelers may soon be able to stop for gas, pick up an asparagus risotto to go and hop right back in the car. Or maybe they’ll even find a milkshake–not the ersatz kind but a real one, made with milk and ice cream, so thick it barely gets up the straw. Now there’s reason to hope.
