Mad Duck brewpub, ‘Baby Duck’ headline massive revamp of Fresno airport food and retail

Travelers at Fresno Yosemite International Airport will see new food, beverage and retail options coming to the terminal under two new contracts approved Thursday by the Fresno City Council.

The new 15-year agreements with concessionaires will bring newcomers to the airport including a Mad Duck Craft Brewery restaurant already in business in Fresno and Clovis; “Baby Duck,” a grab-and-go version of the Mad Duck concept; Peet’s Coffee; Ike’s Sandwiches; Einstein Bros. Bagels; and lifestyle retail brand Brookstone.

It will also mean the departure of established airport outlets including Starbucks and the John Muir Tavern.

For more than 20 years, Maryland-based HMSHost has been the sole concessionaire for food and beverage services at Fresno’s airport, while Hudson Group of New Jersey has operated the airport’s newsstands and gift shops.

But the most recent agreements with both companies ended in December 2022 and have been in a hold-over pattern for the past few months as airport officials from Fresno, Sacramento and Phoenix analyzed new proposals and prepared a recommendation for City Council members.

SSP America would replace HMSHost as Fresno airport concessionaire

The bid-evaluation committee recommended awarding a contract for almost $5.8 million to Virginia-based SSP America for food and beverage services, and a $2.8 million agreement with Hudson Group to continue operating the news/convenience concessions throughout the airport terminal.

The process for building out and changing over the existing food locations is expected to take about 12 months, said Vikkie Calderon, a spokesperson for the airport.

“SSP proposes well-known, local food programs that will provide FAT’s passengers with healthy and diverse options throughout the day and night,” Fresno airports director Henry Thompson and airport properties manager Melissa Garza-Perry wrote in a staff report to the City Council.

Hudson’s proposed lineup of national and local products are expected to offer passengers “reputable brands related to new, convenience, retail, gift and travel essentials,” Thompson and Garza-Perry added. They described both SSP and Hudson proposals as “top tier” for Fresno passengers.

Airport staff estimates that the two contracts together could generate almost $1.3 million in revenue per year for the airport, or more than $19.4 million over the 15-year terms of the contracts.

Both contracts include two separate phases as the city undertakes an ambitious $127 million expansion of the terminal building to be completed in late 2025. The first phase of each contract covers the concession programs in the existing terminal, and a second phase would include new locations within the expansion footprint.

Starbucks gone, with Peet’s Coffee in its place

SSP operates food and beverage concessions at about 30 airports across the U.S. and a dozen more in Canada, Bermuda and Brazil. Within California, the company is at airports in San Francisco, Oakland, San Jose, San Diego and Sacramento. In addition to Mad Duck — to be operated under a licensing agreement with the local company — SSP proposes to work with TNT Concessions, a woman-owned business in Oakland, to operate grab-and-go eateries including Baby Duck, Peet’s Coffee and Ike’s Sandwiches.

Peet’s, founded in Berkeley in the 1960s, has about 240 coffee bar locations in California. Peet’s has several counters inside Fresno businesses, such as The Post, at Bullard and West avenues, but no standalone coffee shops. Other Peet’s locations are in Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin and Washington, D.C.

Ike’s Sandwiches has stores in about 60 cities in California including Fresno, as well as locations in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Texas and Utah.

The airport’s current food offerings include a pair of Starbucks coffee locations, one in the lobby, the other in the corridor leading to the boarding concourse; and the John Muir Tavern in the boarding concourse. Hudson News has stores in the lobby, in the corridor and on the concourse.

Calderon told The Fresno Bee that one more food location is being planned on the concourse near the lower boarding gates to provide more food options for travelers.

‘Pop-up’ options would give opportunity to smaller vendors

In addition, she said, “the airport is considering a pop-up program in the terminal that would allow for additional local businesses to apply for a six-month operating permit” for either food/beverage or retail service, to be overseen by the airport’s staff and separate from the concession contractors.

“The purpose of the (pop-up) program is to allow smaller local vendors the opportunity to operate within the terminal without committing to a 24/7 operation that is needed at the airport,” Calderon said via email.

Hudson Group, operator of Hudson News stores at Fresno Yosemite International Airport, has more than 1,000 stores at airports across the U.S. In Fresno, it is proposing to add a Brookstone store, described as a lifestyle and technology retail concept. The Brookstone location will be operated for Hudson by Martinez-Niebla LLC

Hudson Group also plans to open an Einstein Bros. Bagels shop in the airport lobby to offer coffee and grab-and-go food options before passengers reach the Transportation Security Administration’s security screening area, according to the bid-evaluation committee’s report.

Einstein’s Bagels has about 30 stores throughout California; the nearest location to Fresno is in San Luis Obispo. The company also has locations in 43 other states.

Bee reporter Bethany Clough contributed to this report.