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| From Flying Machine |
Ok, this one’s a little nepotistic because a good friend of mine runs the joint. But there used to be a time when I was younger when I would sit out on Frontage Road outside Orlando International Airport and watch airplanes take off and land as a nice way to pass the evening with a special friend. With the onset of terrorist watches, you can’t sit out on that road anymore without being moved along by police. However, you can still get the same experience (while it lasts), at the Flying Machine in Lawrenceville, Georgia.
Now, I wish I had more photos of the food and bar area, I thought I had enough from previous visits. Briscoe Field is a small airport, which may be getting bigger, but currently is capable of handling light aircraft and corporate jets. The volume of air traffic isn’t huge, as it is almost entirely private planes, and is affected for better and worse by the quality of the day’s weather. During my last day there, we saw about a dozen planes use the runway over a two and a half hour period on a Sunday Afternoon.
As for the food, you get solid pub food done at fair prices (Menu). The $100 burger costs $6 (the higher price due to the cost of flying your plane in to get one). They have a few beers on tap, all domestics, with a wallet friendly $2.75 price. And a couple of dozen more in the bottle (I drank Landshark for $3.99). It is a very nice place to have a drink and some food on the patio, with the planes creating a nice backdrop.
They are also well known for music, particularly country music. The proprietor, who uses the name, Hokey Sloan had some minor fame with a song called “I didn’t give her the car.” The day we were there he played a new tune called “Same Ol Same Ol” and the rumor is he’s spending some time in the recording studio. He also played a Conway Twitty number at our request. A number of country acts play through there and you can check their website for a schedule.
What you get is good pub food and drinks at reasonable prices, nice music, and the planes creating a wonderful backdrop for you and your friends. I’m surprised more kids aren’t there as the place is family friendly and the children we saw were enthralled by the speeding aircrafts. And if the recent brouhaha about privatizing the airport comes to fruition, you might not have that much more opportunity to chill at Gwinnett’s quaint little airstrip. So you better get while the getting’s good and enjoy while it lasts. You can tell him I sent you (Hokey knows me as Doug).
Restaurant Fundamentals
Address: 510 Briscoe Blvd, Lawrenceville GA 30045 ( Gwinnett County)
Phone: 770.962.2262
Website: www.theflyingmachine.com
Cultural Significance: B+
Food Quality: B
Healthiness: C (its pub food remember)
Price: A
Value: A+
Overall Rating: A-
Recommendations: Burgers and Beer, topped with Hummingbird Cake
Significance: A Deck literally right on an Airport Runway, Country Music
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