AUBURN — When the doors at the Auburn-Lewiston Municipal Airport’s restaurant reopen next month, expect the food to be a little different from typical diner fare.
Chef Molly Hill said she hopes to challenge Auburn’s palate a bit, offering her twists on comfort food: an albacore and Swiss cheese tuna melt or macaroni and cheese made with curly noodles and Gouda cheese.
“We want to be accessible like a diner, but a space like this is itself a destination,” Hill said. “It has ambiance just based on the view (of the taxiway). So what we offer should be much more than just a diner/snack bar.”
Hill is the head chef at Cavu Cafe, due to open as the airport’s restaurant before Valentine’s Day. Her goal is to offer fresh gourmet food at a decent price, appealing to pilots flying in and people working in the area’s many industrial parks.
The cafe space was expanded in 2012 along with the rest of the airport terminal.
“I’m starting with food that is approachable but elevated slightly,” Hill said. “I don’t to exclude anyone. We don’t want to give off a pretentious air.”
The airport’s restaurant has been closed since the fall of 2013, when the airport and operators of the Landing Strip Cafe could not settle on a contract.
Airport Director Rick Lanman said the airport’s board went through an exhaustive search before signing a contract with Cavu. All-new kitchen and prep equipment was delivered and installed this week and new dining-room furniture is due soon.
Business Manager Delian Valeriani said he sees two markets, both of which can call ahead to have their food ready to go.
“We are going to be focusing heavily on box lunches and takeouts,” he said. “It’s an industrial park area with lots of people on lunch breaks and people flying in. We want them to be able to call in or email and get their food, ready to go.”
He said he thinks the restaurant will fit in well with the trend of the Twin Cities growing better-quality restaurants, including Fuel, Fish Bones American Grill and Rails.
“We want to get in that in-between margin — higher quality food with fast service,” Valeriani said. “We want to take advantage of the raised expectations people are starting to have for quality food in this area. We want to present it affordably and rapidly.”
The restaurant will be open for breakfast and lunch until 3 p.m. at first. Hill said they’ll offer catering services as well as occasional dinners, and Valeriani said he’d like to expand to offer regular dinner service.
“We are trying to make this a destination and really integrate into the community,” he said. “So another aspect we’d like to do is family-style, sit-down dinners.”
The restaurant is owned by investor Richard Bennett of Oxford.
Hill began cooking in college, working at a tapa cafe in Beverly, Mass. She’s worked at Boston’s Bohdi Restaurant as well as kitchens in Durango, Colo., and in Germany. She also worked as a private chef for years in Oxford.
Valeriani most recently worked for SAGE Dining, the food service provider for Hebron Academy.
Hill came up with the name while looking over a list of aviation jargon. “CAVU” is an aviation acronym meaning clear skies: “Ceiling and Visibility Unrestricted” or “Clear Air, Visibility Unrestricted.”
“That name just stuck out,” she said. “It’s almost like a saying, ‘Good luck.'”
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