July 29, 2015 Edibles » Three-Course Spiel

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Three questions for Chris Windus, chef at 1897 

Newest eating option at Charlotte-Douglas Airport represents the Queen City for those coming and going

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click to enlarge Chris Windus of 1897. (Photo by Ryan Pitkin)
  • Chris Windus of 1897. (Photo by Ryan Pitkin)

For a company operating eateries in more than 100 airports around the globe, including 80 percent of those in Charlotte-Douglas Airport International, it's important to keep things fresh.

HMSHost is doing just that with the recent opening of 1897 Market in Charlotte, a chef-driven town-and-country marketplace that offers everything from a full-service dining experience to grab-and-go sandwiches. The kicker at 1897 is that it's all made fresh on site and most of the ingredients — from the oysters at the raw bar to the craft beers on tap — come from Charlotte and the surrounding areas.

When Creative Loafing stopped by just a couple months after 1897's opening, the daily special was a burger made with a mix of Angus beef and Neese's Country Sausage (based in Greensboro with a facility in NoDa) topped with locally made Queen Charlotte's Pimento Cheese Royale. We talked with Chris Windus, head chef at 1897, about serving local foods to those just passing through.

Creative Loafing: How important is the local aspect to what you're doing here?

Chris Windus: It's big for us because we want the people who are coming through Charlotte, that don't live here, to know that we have these awesome products here. Where I come from — my fine-dining background — everything is about your products and your sourcing, and I need that. I also need to know that we're supporting our community.

We're going out and finding these local purveyors and really trying to use them. My sous chef and I hit up the farmer's markets on weekends, buy the products, bring them in and run specials with them. For me, as a chef, doing the same thing over and over would be super boring. I like going out and meeting the people who are growing our vegetables and producing our meats, anything we can do to have local ties and a story behind our products.

Are there other 1897 Market locations?

This is the first 1897, but we already have inquiries from all over the country because they see the platform and what the restaurant is doing in this airport. In the next five years, we'll have multiple locations opening all over. If we're in Minneapolis or in Los Angeles, it's going to be the same thing; we'll go 100-percent local there with anything we can find in town.

You make much of your food on-site. How does that change the airport dining experience?

Take Caesar salad. Everybody knows what that is. You walk in and it's the same thing everywhere you go. It can be good, it can be OK or it can be great. Making something that's as simple as a Caesar salad great, that's what you're going to remember when you go some place. We take anchovies and fresh garlic and capers and we dump them together and spread them out really thin on a sheet pan and cook that in our pizza oven until it gets really dark and crispy. That gives another level of flavor that you're not going to get with prepared Caesar dressing. We take that mixture and cook it crispy and grind it up and that's the base of our Caesar dressing. Just for me, that's how I cook. Those are the steps we take: layering the flavors of all our items and not just dumping it into a container and saying, "See ya later." Hopefully, that's going to be the difference in this versus any other airport food you're going to get.

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