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Bar At BWI Named One Of The Best Airport Brew Pubs In The Country

LINTHICUM, Md. (WJZ) -- Management at BWI Thurgood Marshall encourages the company that operates the bars and restaurants there to reflect the flavor of the Chesapeake.

Now, as Mike Schuh reports, one bar at the airport has gained national attention.

By the time you get to the airport, your options are limited, which may make what's happening at BWI surprising.

We're at a restaurant that sells microbrews. Matt Wooten from the Carolinas stopped by.

Schuh: "I guess when I think of a restaurant in an airport, I don't think best of anything."

Wooten: "Yeah, no kidding."

That is just the impression Michelle Ranum needs to change.

Schuh: "You have a captive crowd that's been treated poorly for years, charged too much money for a mediocre product."

Ranum: "That's correct."

So, with a nudge from the airport, they found a local partner to build a better bar.

"DuClaw's got a great presence in the Baltimore area," said Ranum.

Now business at the DuClaw microbrew located at BWI has doubled early projections. With all fresh food and award-winning Maryland beer, it's getting national attention.

"GQ Magazine named us one of the nine best airport brew pub opportunities," Ranum said.

Matt Wooten is pleasantly surprised.

"Honestly, yeah. You figure you have your neighborhood favorite bars and you wouldn't think the one in the airport would be there," he said.

Seven beers brewed in Harford County are giving travelers who don't have high expectations a glimpse of what they could find in Maryland if they were able to get out of the airport. If not this visit, then the next one.

Apparently, travelers are thirsty morning, noon and night. The bar opens at 7 a.m.

Overall in recent years, BWI has received more than 30 national awards for its stores, bars and restaurants.

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