Concept only.No grill, no pie, not yet.Here's the idea
Inside the cafe in the morning: a long counter with stools, pie case by the register, and a wall of windows looking out at small airplanes on the ramp

ON THE FIELD · WARD FIELD · KJWB

Three meals on the field.

Biscuits at dawn, burgers at lunch, fresh seafood at dinner, and pie all day, a short walk from the . Pilots, flight students and the neighbors who just like watching airplanes all eat at the same counter.

JWB← RampCafe ↑Pie

for pie.

The MenuFlying In

TODAY'S PIE: KEY LIME

THE PLACE

We didn't build anything. We moved in.

Every small airport has a building like this one. An old terminal or pilot shop with a counter, a wall of windows facing the ramp, and a coffee pot that never seems to shut off.

We took it over, kept the windows, upgraded the coffee and put a flat-top grill behind the counter. The best seats face the runway. The booth by the window goes first on Saturdays.

The old pilot shop by the ramp at Ward Field.

The cafe building beside the ramp, white with a navy stripe, a covered porch with picnic tables, palm trees and small airplanes tied down nearby

Window seats

Every table can see the ramp. The counter stools can see the .

Radio on the shelf

Tuned to the tower, turned down low. Regulars can tell who's landing by the voice.

Open at 6, every day

Coffee's on for the first flight lessons of the morning. The flight schools don't take days off, so neither do we.

Everyone welcome

You don't need a pilot certificate to eat here. Just an appetite.

THE BISCUIT COUNTER

The Biscuit Inquisition

We ask the hard questions. Butter or gravy? Egg or no egg? Honey or hot honey?

Scratch-made buttermilk biscuits, cut by hand and baked in small batches all morning, so there's always a pan coming out of the oven. Every biscuit on the board has a name.

Last panBiscuits until 2. When the last pan's gone, it's gone.
A baker pulling a sheet pan of tall golden buttermilk biscuits from the oven, split biscuits with fried chicken and sausage on the counter
  • The Preflight$3

    A plain biscuit, butter and house jam. Simple and hard to beat.

  • The Ward$7

    Sausage, egg and cheddar. The house standard, named for the field.

  • The Eagle$8

    Fried chicken breast and honey butter. For the flight students up the road.

  • The Beach Racer$8

    Bacon, egg, cheese and a hash brown patty. Built for speed.

  • $9

    Country ham, fried egg and pimento cheese. Everything you need and nothing you don't.

  • $8

    Fried chicken, hot honey and bread-and-butter pickles.

  • $7

    Split biscuit, open-faced, circling under sausage gravy.

  • The Sunrise Launch$4

    Warm biscuit, strawberry butter and a dusting of sugar.

Get your name on a biscuit.

Eat fifty breakfasts here and we'll name a biscuit after you. It goes on the board with your tail number, or your street if you drove.

Dinner

Dinner Wednesday through Sunday, 5 to 8:30. Plates come with two sides and a biscuit.

A window table at dusk with a fried seafood platter, shrimp and grits and a biscuit basket, the ramp outside lit by blue taxiway lights
  • Catch of the DayMarket

    Whatever came off the boats at Ponce Inlet. Grilled, blackened or fried.

  • Shrimp & Grits$22

    Mayport shrimp, stone-ground cheese grits, andouille and a pan sauce.

  • Fried Seafood Platter$26

    Shrimp, scallops and fish, cornmeal crust, tartar and cocktail sauce.

  • Crab Cakes$24

    Two of them, mostly crab, remoulade on the side.

  • Crabmeat-Stuffed Flounder$26

    Flounder rolled around a crabmeat stuffing, baked with lemon butter. An old favorite from an airport restaurant in Frederick, Maryland, back when it was trout.

  • Orange-Datil Glazed Salmon$24

    Orange blossom honey, fresh orange and St. Augustine datil pepper, lacquered on in the oven. Sweet first, a little heat after.

  • Chicken-Fried Steak$19

    Hand-breaded, white pepper gravy. Plan on a nap.

  • Meatloaf Dinner$17

    Two thick slices, tomato glaze, mashed potatoes. Same one from Monday lunch, bigger.

  • Prime RibSaturdays$32

    Slow-roasted, au jus and horseradish cream. Until it runs out.

  • Grilled Chicken Plate$16

    Lemon-herb chicken breast for anyone flying home tonight.

Beer and wine with dinner: local craft beer on tap and a short wine list. Bottle to throttle, as always.

SIDES · Mashed potatoes, flat-top potatoes, collards, mac and cheese, green beans, fried okra, cheese grits, cole slaw, hush puppies.

DAILY SPECIALS

Check the

A lunch special every day, $14 with a drink. When it's gone, it's gone.

KJWB · DAILY SPECIALS · VALID UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE
  • MONMeatloaf, mashed potatoes and green beans. Expect delays at the pie case.
  • TUEChicken and dumplings. Limited quantity, first come first served.
  • WEDFried shrimp basket with slaw and hush puppies.
  • THUHot turkey sandwich with gravy. Cranberry on request.
  • FRIFish fry, grouper or mahi. Runs out by 1 most weeks.
  • SATPancake fly-in. All-you-can-eat stacks until 10.
  • SUNSunday Boil on the porch. Shrimp, sausage, corn and red potatoes, dumped on the table. Runs until the pot is empty.

HOUSE TRADITIONS

Milestones get fed.

Your instructor already cut it. Bring it by, we'll frame it on the wall with your name, the date and the tail number, and breakfast is on us.

Land here on your student solo cross-country, show us the logbook endorsement, and lunch is on the house. Then sign the student wall.

A whole one. Show us the temporary certificate and pick your flavor.

The window booth has a logbook.

Sign it with your name and where you flew in from. We keep every page, so years from now you can find the day you stopped in.

FLY IN · DRIVE IN

Right on the ramp.

  1. 1Land at Ward Field (KJWB). Check the and , and expect training traffic from the flight schools on the field.
  2. 2Taxi to transient parking. Tell them you're here to eat.
  3. 3Walk over to the building with the yellow sign. The coffee's already on.

Hours

  • Monday & Tuesday6am – 2pm
  • Wednesday – Friday6am – 2pm · Dinner 5 – 8:30pm
  • Saturday6am – 2pm · Pancake fly-in · Dinner 5 – 8:30pm
  • Sunday6am – 2pm · Dinner 5 – 8:30pm

Find Us

On the field at Ward Field (KJWB), a made-up airport

No phone yet · flyinganddiningcafe.com

Flying club or fly-in group of eight or more? Call ahead and we'll save the long table by the windows.

OUR STORY

Every pilot has a favorite airport cafe.

Sixteen years in restaurants, most of them with a tray in my hand. Thirty more in the air, and a lot of those miles were flown to eat somewhere.

Every pilot has a place like this. A counter by the window, a waitress who knows your , pie that's better than it needs to be. It's where students hear their first real hangar stories, and where people who've never flown sit and watch the airplanes anyway.

Ward Field has the students, the neighbors and a ramp worth watching. All it's missing is the cafe. Opening someday.

WHAT THIS IS

A restaurant that doesn't exist. Yet.

Flying & Dining Cafe is a restaurant concept, not a restaurant. There is no grill, no pie case and no counter. Nothing here is open for business, and Ward Field (KJWB) is made up too, named for my grandfather, so you won't find it on a chart.

It was dreamed up by a professional pilot who spent sixteen years in restaurants and the next thirty in the air. The menu, the prices and the traditions are real intentions rather than real offerings. If it ever opens, it will look a lot like this page.

Want to hear about it if it ever becomes real?