First Friday Luncheons are open to Professional and Fellow members only; the menus appear in Previews.

Friday, December 7, 12:00 noon
Members $55, guests $65

Chances are, recent news stories stating that the waiting time at airports was at an all-time high didn’t make you start dancing around the room. After all, airports aren’t places to linger in. Waiting is for those sad saps we see on the 10 o’clock news, bleary-eyed and grim as their flight is delayed yet again. Two-time Beard Award–winner Todd English is here with his own news bulletin: a throw-back to the days when traveling was an event and terminals an elegant part of the experience. Hence his fifth Figs restaurant, located in La Guardia Airport, with corporate executive chef Brad Stevens at the helm. Figs can be a place to linger, if you would like a leisurely meal, or a place to grab a quick bite that’s not wrapped in plastic and not prepared weeks in advance. In the Shaw Review, Steven Shaw wrote that Figs had been "a much-needed landing at LGA." "It’s hard to fault Figs," he continued, praising the casual entrées and sandwiches and thin-crust pizzas, "superior to those served at all but the best Manhattan pizzerias." In The New York Times, William Grimes wrote that the La Guardia outpost of Figs has "hearty, rustic food that puts it in a different universe from the franchise operations surrounding it."

Stevens, who has been with the Olives Group since 1994, met Todd English while working at Michela’s, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where English was executive chef. After four years at Michela’s, Stevens started as sous-chef of another Beantown restaurant, Papa Razzi, working his way up to executive chef in three years. Now with more than 20 years of restaurant experience to his credit, Stevens oversees the operations of all five Figs locations.