Sky Café — Restaurant in Alexandria Township

I deeply despise the term "hidden gem," but I'm hard-pressed not to use it here. This place is in the middle of nowhere, and I was only aware of its existence from local word of mouth, despite this being essentially my original HQ and my high school being a very short ride down the road (and good luck even seeing this from the road). Subtle doesn't even begin to describe this location.

I came here this past Sunday for lunch with some chums, including two honorary young pup chums. The young pups were primarily brought along in the hopes that there might be some airplane action optics for them, so on that basis alone it was a success - we had at least two planes land in front of the windows, prompting a mixture of squeals and shushes. We also took a quick walk outside afterwards to look at the planes parked (feels like there must be a better word it) off to the side of the runway, which was an exciting mini-adventure for them despite the nippiness. Just to underscore the random area this is in, you have to drive off a county highway past the entrance to Beneduce, and then into the Sky Manor Airport, which requires driving all the way around and behind the airport buildings until you ultimately arrive at the restaurant. You earn this one.

The interior of this place is pretty memorable too - I've been in a few local airport cafes before, and this is on par with them. Lots of wood paneling that feels like an unintentional homage to everyone's grandparents' basement (where were the Dean Martin records?), coupled with airplane swag on the walls and just an overall old school diner feel. I don't know that this restaurant is necessarily historic in the sense that it's been here for decades, but it's cozy and seems lived in, if that makes sense. Very cool.

I'd been emotionally preparing for breakfast/brunch but didn't realize that that specific menu cuts off before noon, so I hemmed and hawed quite a bit at the lunch menu. None of the burgers or sandwiches were really speaking to me so I went with the Arugula Salad with the grilled chicken add-on, featuring sweet potatoes, cranberries and a soft boiled egg. It's pretty rare for me to go salad, but this is the kind of I'm into, and it delivered. Huge portion (I was decently hungry and probably left a quarter of it on the plate), and all of the sweet and savory perfectly complemented each other. If you're into salad chains, it reminded me a lot of the harvest bowl option at Chopt or Sweet Green but honestly better.

The one miss for me was dessert. The pups were clamoring for chocolate cake, so I agreed to split a slice of the red velvet with my chum. I had a bad feeling when I stuck my fork into the side and actually had trouble getting a bite size worth separated from the rest of the slice - it was that stale. I'm guessing that particular cake was at least a day old, which literally and figuratively left a bit of a bad taste in the mouth. Pretty avoidable mistake, in my opinion. The pups seemed delighted with their option, so I suppose you take the victories where you can.

The service was very good. The young pups probably prompted the hospitality to tick up a notch, which is more than fine. Our waitress was very friendly and stopped by regularly. When we ordered the chocolate cake for the pups to split, she then sliced that up on her own initiative so each pup actually got their own small slice. Nice touch.

Would love to try out the breakfast menu in the future, which probably has more intriguing options overall for me but regardless this was a solid win to jumpstart the year. I imagine the airport optics are also way better when you have the luxury of hanging out outside in non-polar...

Went with my daughter for breakfast and let me tell you beautiful view and excuse my launge freaking disgusting service. The wsit was not the issue, the service was. We were sat down. It was busy....we were forgotten food was given to us and guess what with no utensils. Like seriously what was i suppose to eat with my hands. I didnt mind outside seating but if you offer outside seating make sure especially with children you should have enough umbrellas for the seating. Then it was hot as balls outside and no one came to ask if we needed water nothing as I melted and dried in the sun with my 5 year old daughter. The waitress has the nerve to get annoyed when i asked for a apple juice before i left. Then you wonder why people dont tip. Wait gets even better when i did not tip and left a .64 cent tip she wanted to come and try to embarrass me and yea no sorry ask why you didnt get a tip. We were left with no serive for a hour after the fact we recieved our food. Doesnt mayter if i wasnt a party of 5 or 6 it was me and my daughter and i would have gladly tipped. Your service forgot about us and im sorry service is service. Coming from soneone who worked in...

Food mediocre. Seems to be an attempt at the fancy gastro-pub style, but misses the mark. The wait for seating can be quite obnoxious at any time of the day during the weekend, as there is not enough seating. Time for ordering breakfast or lunch is fluid due to the staff and kitchen perpetually being behind, so if you wish to order lunch don't count on being allowed to order from the lunch menu at 12:00. From the perspective of an airport restaurant, it is not worth flying in for a meal. I grew up flying here for a greasy Burger and fries and loved it as the prior owner embraced the pilots that chose their restaurant for a "$100 hamburger." Now... you'll be stuck with a half hour plus wait for a table, behind non flyers driving in for a morning in the country, and a staff that couldn't care less about the aviation community that was the original reason for the restaurant. I'm honestly sad to see what has become of this restaurant I remember so fondly from...