Duck confit, steak? Taunton Airport restaurant aims for gourmet menu at affordable prices

TAUNTON — You won’t need a pilot’s license to eat at the Aire restaurant. An appetite and an open mind will suffice.

The eatery and catering service will occupy a spacious corner area inside the new Taunton Municipal Airport’s commercial administration building on Westcoat Drive off of Middleboro Avenue in East Taunton.

Sole proprietor and head chef Charles Hermann is shooting for a March opening.

Hermann describes his menu as “Creative American,” which roughly translates to traditional fare infused with his own stylistic, culinary perspective.

He’s also intent on offering food and drinks that make a strong impression without breaking the bank of the average diner.

Hermann says if there’s one thing he’s learned during his 25-year career as chef and caterer, it’s that “everybody loves fine dining, but nobody wants to pay unaffordable prices.”

That might sound obvious on its face, but the Morristown, New Jersey, native says it’s essential to his establishing a following at his Silver City restaurant.

There recently was a sizable turnout at an open house held Saturday, Oct. 28, at the municipal airport, which has undergone a $7.3 million transformation — the centerpiece of which is a building that, in addition to the restaurant, now offers conference rooms for aviation training and business meetings.

Hermann said when he and his wife Ruth doled out free samples of his signature steak chili, cornbread and clam chowder, the response was very encouraging.

He also thinks it bodes well for the future of the revitalized airport that a number of visitors with whom he spoke said they had flown in from airports in Newport, Norwood, Chatham and even New York.

The Aire menu will offer familiar American staples like omelets, burgers and homemade macaroni and cheese. But Hermann insists that variations will abound.

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Breakfast menu with fresh ideas

Breakfast options, he said, will include his own “signature hashes” that, at first glance, might seem a trifle unusual but should please the palate of customers interested in trying something slightly novel.

“It’s not just going to be corned beef hash,” he said.

When was the last time, for example, that you had eggs with a side of hash consisting of braised duck leg meat derived from what the French call duck confit? Hermann said that will be just one of his unique signature hashes.

The breakfast menu will also likely include French toast stuffed either with a coconut-based filling or a creamy, sweet custard “creme brulee.” Traditional silver dollar pancakes are also an option.

Hermann said he’ll have a variety of coffee choices, including espresso, as well as his own house blend. He also wants to buy beans from a local roaster.

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What's on the lunch menu?

He’s hopeful the lunch crowd will want to try his version of a chicken meat burger, prepared and seasoned with Japanese-style panko breadcrumbs and served on a sweet brioche bun. The sandwich, including a side dish, should sell for around $12.

Customers will also be able to order a grilled panini burger with a side salad made with artisan lettuce and French gaufrette (sometimes called waffle) fried potatoes.

And Hermann says he’ll strive to satisfy soup lovers. During winter months, he said, “We’ll have four to five soups and certain limited items.”

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Farm-to-table dinners

The dinner menu will periodically change depending on the annual season and will consistently include “farm to table” locally grown, fresh produce.

Hermann said seafood dishes will play a prominent role including summer season lobster rolls — “only fresh meat,” he said — and tasty striped bass now and then.

Spanish-style paella with a choice of chicken meat, sausage or seafood cooked with rice will be a worthy selection, Hermann said. He’ll also have fresh-baked desserts including cookies and biscotti.

Steak dinners, Hermann vowed, will be comparable in quality to what one might order in a Capital Grille steakhouse but for a more affordable price.

He’s particularly proud of his honey buttermilk cornbread, which he says is “the moistest cornbread you’ll ever taste in your life.”

Hermann said regional food vendors will include Brockton-based T.F. Kinnealey and Co. and Dole & Bailey Inc. of Woburn. He also plans to patronize local, independent entrepreneurs for commodities such as honey.

Aire has a full liquor license with a wine menu featuring single glass servings ranging from $7 to $15 and bottles served at tables selling for $28 to $60 apiece.

Customers will also be able to order gin, tequila, rum or vodka cocktails priced between $10 and $12.

Seasonal hours of operation

Tentative hours of operation for breakfast and lunch October through March will be 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday.

A dinner menu will be added April through September with restaurant hours tentatively set for 6 a.m. to 9 p.m. Hermann says he also plans to utilize an outdoor patio when the weather is agreeable and is interested in a Sunday jazz brunch with live music.

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Art, cook classes and children's events

He plans to rent out space in the building’s lobby to local artisans selling goods and wares. And he intends to hold cooking classes, wine dinners and children’s events with aviation themes inside the new building.

Hermann said he’ll eventually hire as many as 20 employees including a handful of chefs. He said he’s signed a five-year lease with an option to renew for the restaurant space.

Delivery is an option

Hermann expects to do a brisk takeout business and said that he personally will deliver meals with a minimum order of $100. Online food delivery services such as DoorDash will also be used for home and business deliveries.

For the time being, he said, he still works in Brockton at the non-profit Adult & Teen Challenge where he teaches a vocational, culinary training class and runs his own catering business called Crazy Chef Catering.

Once Aire opens for business, Hermann says he’ll no longer work for the Christian, faith-based organization that helps former drug addicts attain productive skills, and instead will devote his energies to the airport restaurant.

He’ll also continue to run his own catering business but under the Aire banner.

Culinary background and education

Hermann spent most of his childhood in Pennsylvania’s Leheigh Valley and first became interested in food preparation and cooking as a result of his paternal grandfather — who he said had a productive garden and was “very artisanal.”

“I’ve been interested in culinary arts since I was 15,” Hermann said, adding that he grew up watching PBS television chefs Julia Child, Martin Yan and Graham “Galloping Gourmet” Kerr.

He’s a 1997 graduate of Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, where he earned a bachelor’s in hospitality management and an associate’s degree in culinary arts.

The following year Hermann moved to New England and worked at a string of eateries including the former Spoleto Restaurant in Easton; The Artful Table at King’s Way Golf Club in Yarmouth Port; and the former Federal Hill restaurant Siena in Providence.

“I did a lot of hopping around,” he said.

Hermann said the idea of opening a restaurant at the Taunton airport resulted from a conversation with Chris Cooney, president and chief executive of Brockton-based Metro South Chamber of Commerce.

“He knows my cooking and he hooked me up with Jay,” said Hermann, referring to Jay Pateakos, Taunton’s economic and community development director, who informed Hermann about the potential for business development at the airport.

Hermann says his Aire business venture represents a “significant personal investment.”

The money, he said, will be used for flooring; kitchen and catering equipment including a walk-in cooler; company vehicles; a 19-foot exhaust hood for what will be an open kitchen; signage; artwork; patio furniture; outdoor awning; a breakfast and beverage bar; lighting; interior decor; and a children’s outdoor entertainment area.

He and his wife, Ruth, who created the Aire logo and works as a second grade teacher in Boston, live in Scituate. One of Hermann’s two sisters is a pastry chef in North Carolina.

He’s confident that he’s made the right decision.

“We’ll have families, couples, corporate entities. We’re not limiting ourselves. The food is the focus,” Hermann said, adding that “we’re seven minutes away from Walmart (on Route 44 in Raynham), and even though we’re in the sticks, I’m coming to you, and you’re coming to me.”

This article originally appeared on The Enterprise: Taunton Airport restaurant aims for affordable, casual gourmet menu