Upper Deck restaurant at Bong Airport will become hangar

Memories of some pretty ho-hum buffets. The tap water was horrific. Coffee was the color of under-steeped tea. The men's room had some good decor - aviation charts and memorabilia, decent lighting. 

I think I was among the last to eat there before it closed, a patty melt with too-straight fries. I sat with local aviation geeks Gary Black and Tom Sullivan, who was giving some multi-engine training  to the former owner of Skyline Shuttle, who apparently decided to squander his profit on the hopeless pursuit of aviation. I tried to warn him.

There's still a busy and reliably-mediocre airport cafe at Brainerd. Working pilots keep a mental list of airport cafes around the country. It's a thing.