Is LaGuardia the new Las Vegas?

It’s a soupy gray morning in New York, and I’m thinking about all the new restaurants going into LaGuardia, wondering what it means. In the next few weeks so many of my favorite chefs will be opening restaurants in the Delta terminal that I’ll be heading out to the airport just to eat.

Lee Hanson and Riad Nasr, who blew me away with Balthazar and then again Minetta Tavern, are opening a bistro out there, and the lovely Michael Lomonaco is opening a steak place. Pat LaFrieda, the guy who put designer labels on beef, is opening a burger place. And maybe most exciting of all, Di Fara’s is opening a branch; maybe the pizza lines will be shorter than the endless one in Brooklyn?

But I can’t help thinking what a strange development this is. Does it mean that people now expect to spend so much time waiting in airports that they’ve become dining destinations? Or does it mean that airports are changing their profiles, and every vacation will now begin with a few lovely hours before the plane departs?

I’m not sure. But I am reminded that the Guide Michelin was started by a tire company, eager to give people a reason to get out on the road.