A 10-year lease agreement recently signed with Bethesda-based airport food service company HMSHost secured plans for the airport to see new restaurants from celebrity chefs, a swanky wine bar, and additional Starbucks locations in the coming months.

Among the new concepts setting up shop in BWI’s terminals are Kapnos Marketa, a market-style Mediterranean restaurant and gyro shop from Top Chef contender Mike Isabella, a fifth Family Meal location from Frederick-based restaurateur Bryan Voltaggio (also a Top Chef alum ), and Brix & Vine—a brand new wine bar highlighting specialty sandwiches and a variety of wines from Maryland vintners. In addition, HMSHost plans to add two more post-security Starbucks outposts in Concourse B and Concourse D.

“We’re trying to elevate the dining experience with a mix of amazing national and international brands, like Starbucks, but also some cool local concepts like Family Meal,” says HMSHost vice president of business development Bryan Loden. “The whole concept of Family Meal is comfort food with a culinary twist, so it hits a lot of different demographics and speaks to what people really want in airport fare.”

The news of the expansion comes on the heels of BWI’s recent announcement that its passengers were at an all-time high in 2015, rising 6.8 percent from the previous year. HMSHost estimates that the new restaurants will gross more than $130 million in sales throughout the 10-year lease. All changes are expected to take shape by fall 2016.

“If you look at air travel and what’s happened with the macroeconomic meltdowns of late, BWI is one of the few airports that stayed strong during the downturn,” Loden says. “It’s done a tremendous amount of work and we think that the concessions program should definitely keep up with that aesthetic of the terminal building.”

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The former Pabu chef announced today that he and celebrity chef Mike Isabella (a former Top Chef contestant and owner of Graffiato and several other D.C.-VA hotspots) are partnering to open Yona, a Japanese noodle bar and small-plates place in Ballston, VA.

The opening is tentatively set for spring 2015.

Though Kim, a Butchers Hill resident, said he and Isabella initially looked in Baltimore, those plans didn’t pan out.

That being said, the new plans for a ramen restaurant sound promising, and we are happy to follow  this talented chef wherever he lands.

Yona (both the Korean and Japanese pronunciation of Kim’s name) will feature lunch and dinner service.

“Lunch will focus on great takeout options,” says Kim, who just returned from a family vacation and an inspiration trip to Korea. “In the evening, we will create more of a dining experience with small plates that a lot of people in Baltimore are familiar with from when I was at Pabu—I love that style of dining where it’s all in front of you and you can share.”

While Kim’s fried chicken recipe perfected at Pabu will appear on Yona’s menu, other specialties will include donburi bowls, tonkotsu ramen, and small plates such as steamed duck buns and kimchi.

“The food will be ramen, but also with Asian-influenced small plates from Korean to Japanese,” says the native of Korea. “Noodles are the Asian pasta. They are comfortable and very approachable. When you think of ramen or pho or any other kind of noodle dish, the warmth of the broth steaming in your face, the noodles that you are slurping, it’s something that’s really fun. And from a consumer standpoint, the price point works.”

A noodle bar also offers the chef a chance to get back to his roots. “It’s just something that a lot of Asian chefs go back to,” Kim explains. “It’s what we like, and what we grew up eating, and this pays an homage to our culture.”

Kim and Isabella first became friends several years back while doing charity events in Washington, D.C. “We knew each other on a professional level,” says Kim, “and I had done a couple of events at Graffiato. The professional relationship grew into a personal relationship.”

Kim is thrilled with his new business partner. “Mike has been amazing to work with,” says Kim. “He’s been nothing but supportive and he has no ego. He told me, ‘This place is going to be 98-percent you and two-percent me, and that two percent is going to be me supporting you.’” Kim is hoping that he and Isabella will partner on other projects, as well, and says a restaurant in the Baltimore area is “TBD.”

We’ll slurp to that. 

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