oughly 5 million passengers flow through Ted Stevens Anchorage International Airport (ANC) each year. For most of them, the airport is little more than a bleary-eyed bookend to their travels—a necessary pit stop that marks the beginning or end of a trip, but otherwise an afterthought.

But it doesn’t have to be, according to David McCarthy. “When you’re traveling, you spend a lot of time at bus stops, train stops, and airports,” he says. “You don’t realize at the time, though, that these airports become part of the journey. They become part of the destination.”

McCarthy is an avid traveler, and he’s also the founder and president of Northern Hospitality Group, the parent company of 49th State Brewing. Last August, the restaurant chain became part of the journey at ANC when it opened its third location there. The 7,372-square-foot leasehold in the South Terminal’s C Concourse is the airport’s largest, and it brings the brewpub’s award-winning Alaska-made beers, ciders, and craft sodas and its classic, pub-style foods to airport employees and travelers passing through the Air Crossroads of the World.

“The airport is one of the major gateways to Alaska,” McCarthy says. “We want people to have a great experience arriving, and we want them to have a great experience leaving. The airport should not be an afterthought for having quality food.”

49th State Brewing opened its flagship location in Healy, just north of the entrance to Denali National Park and Preserve, in 2010. The idea to open an airport location was on its radar for almost as long.

“When we were living in Denali and started flying out of Fairbanks, we had looked at potentially putting something in the [Fairbanks International] airport,” McCarthy says. The conversation shifted to ANC after the company expanded into Downtown Anchorage in 2016.

McCarthy and co-owner Jason Motyka began talks with HMSHost, which operates more than 200 restaurants at airports and travel plazas worldwide, to open 49th State Brewing at ANC, McCarthy says. But he and Motyka decided that the partnership—essentially a licensing agreement that would grant HMSHost the right to use the 49th State Brewing name and logo and control of the restaurant’s operations—wasn’t the right fit.

“We did not think that was going to properly represent our brand because of the uniqueness of the restaurant and all the details,” McCarthy explains. “We felt that they might dilute our brand.”

Instead, they waited for the airport to issue a request for proposal (RFP) for restaurant concessions. That opportunity came sooner than anticipated when, in November 2022, the airport issued an RFP for concession space in its South Terminal—a 5,461-square-foot storefront in the secure zone and 1,911-square-foot pre-security space, sharing a common wall. The RFP required the winning bidder to occupy both leaseholds for a ten-year commitment. The airport’s vision for the space worked to 49th State Brewing’s advantage.

“Our primary focus during the RFP process was to get an Alaska-themed restaurant that showcased an established Alaskan brand,” says ANC Leasing Manager Sara Haley, who at the time managed the state-owned airport’s concession program and oversaw contract negotiations with 49th State Brewing. “Travelers going through our airport are by and large not just merely visiting Anchorage but are here to experience Alaska and all that entails.”

The RFP had a two-and-a-half month window from issue to award date. McCarthy says that would have been an impossible timeframe had they not already been in talks with HMSHost.

“We actually had an initial design in place prior to knowing the RFP was going to go out,” McCarthy says. “We could not have successfully pulled off that time frame if we had not already worked on a concept of putting something in the airport.”

McCarthy and his wife “were jumping up and down” when he learned that 49th State Brewing had secured the contract. Awards to local businesses are a rarity in airport leasing, according to Haley.

“The airport understood that a leasehold of this size, almost 8,000 square feet spanning a pre-security and post-security floorplan, was not going to be easy to remodel and manage,” Haley says. “We knew it would take an extraordinary, established company to handle such a leasehold. We found the qualities we required in a local company, which is not very common in the airport concession industry.”

The airport wanted the restaurant completed in time for the summer 2023 travel season, giving 49th State Brewing a six-to-eight-week window to remodel the space and get the operation up and running. That time frame, combined with McCarthy’s design concept, proved too aggressive for the local general contractors McCarthy approached, so he called in a general contractor and family friend from Colorado to help, as well as local craftsmen to handle the custom décor.

“It really is a labor of love, not just for us but all these other Alaskan companies that worked together to help us pull that off,” he says.

Airport staff, from maintenance crews to the administration, were just as instrumental in 49th State Brewing’s ability to pull the remodel off in the required time frame, McCarthy says.

“The airport really did go out of its way to allow us, as a local company, to achieve and overcome what almost seemed like an insurmountable obstacle at the beginning,” McCarthy says. “They were extremely helpful.”

The airport was equally impressed with 49th State Brewing’s ability to remodel the restaurant and open its doors to summer travelers.

“The 49th State Brewing team, from the start of design to construction finish to daily operations, have been great to work with,” Haley says. “Their dedication to 49th State Brewing-Ted Stevens is evident, and we are excited to see what they can accomplish in the 2024 summer season.”

Like its Healy and Downtown Anchorage brewpubs, 49th State Brewing’s airport location wears its love of Alaska on its sleeve. The nods to Alaska in the restaurant’s décor are both obvious and subtle, and its menu puts an Alaska twist on traditional pub fare. Even its adjacent gift shop is a love letter to Alaska, offering the restaurant’s branded merchandise alongside items from local brands such as Heather’s Choice and the Alaska Chip Company.

“We wanted to give people the feeling that they’d stepped out of the airport, which can feel hectic and uncomfortable, and feel like they were in a special place in Alaska,” McCarthy says. “That was really the feeling I was trying to get across.”

The restaurant has the Alaska touches expected from the 49th State Brewing brand. Though a local architect worked with the airport on the technical drawings, the entirety of the restaurant’s layout and aesthetics was all McCarthy.

“In no way, shape, or form was it cookie cutter,” he says. “We tried to incorporate that same element of what makes our brand special, why we love to live here in Alaska, which is why we call ourselves 49th State.”

The restaurant’s aesthetics, both pre- and post-security, pull travelers from the figurative coldness of the airport into a warm, firmly Alaska-themed space. The host podium post-security is built around moose antler sheds, and a large king crab shell is framed on the adjacent wall. A chandelier made from caribou antler sheds hangs above the 70-foot copper bar, the longest in the airport; behind it, two airplane propellers flank four wall-mounted televisions. An old railroad ticker above the tap lists some of the twenty brews available. Handholds in the stone pillars, a holdover from when Chili’s Grill & Bar occupied the space, are a nod to mountain climbing, and each of the restaurant’s rope dividers incorporates a different rock climbing or fishing knot.

As a nod to traveling families, the C Concourse restaurant also has a corner space with child-size tables and an airplane play structure to keep them occupied. “Parents can sit next to them, have dinner with a craft beverage, and the children can sit at their own table and have their own experience,” McCarthy says. “We’re not exclusive; we’re inclusive.”

The C Concourse restaurant offers table service, bar seating, and grab-and-go options. The menu, though less extensive than the Healy and Downtown Anchorage locations, is a mix of the restaurant’s signature dishes and items unique to the airport. The restaurant’s popular smoked chicken wings, which pair with the brewery’s smoked beer, and the king crab rangoon, which McCarthy says gives people a taste of Alaska in a more practical package for airport dining, made it to the airport menu, alongside more “classic” airport options.

“We designed a lot of things unique to the airport, so it has the flavor of things we’ve come to love in Alaska but in a form that’s a little more convenient for travelers that have little time to dine,” McCarthy says. “A long, Italian flatbread is unique to the airport location. Flatbreads are a little easier to eat, easier to take it to go and bring it on the plane. King crab rangoon gives a taste of Alaskan red king crab but in a form that’s a little quicker to put together. Then we have a chicken club sandwich, hamburgers, and other things that are more of a comfort food that people would get before they’re getting on the plane.”

The pre-security restaurant has grab-and-go items and walk-up counter service with picnic-style seating. Potted spruce plants, murals reminiscent of the mountains, and moss walls impart an outdoor, park-like feel.

“The idea behind that is it’s more casual,” he says. “We wanted to create an environment where people could go up and grab one of our craft sodas and sit down and wait for friends and family to come in instead of standing near the elevator.”

The beer garden menu has a different—and more limited—selection than the post-security restaurant and is centered around “fun and handheld” items, including bratwurst and sausages, flatbreads, and the local favorite halibut and chips. McCarthy says plans are in the works to add a full-service bar to the space.

The airport restaurant isn’t Northern Hospitality’s only new venture. In 2019, Alaska Pacific Beverage Company, the Northern Hospitality business line that manufactures its beers and craft sodas, moved into a production facility at The Rail, west of the Alaska Railroad Depot in Ship Creek. Northern Hospitality is currently in the process of building the space out, with the beverage production process as the focal point.

“We are building out a lab and a tasting room,” McCarthy says. “It will have event space, restaurant eating space, a limited menu, and a tasting room.”

Unlike the restaurant’s Healy, Downtown, and airport locations, the design of the Ship Creek space will be a departure from what diners have come to expect from 49th State Brewing properties.

“When it’s completed it’ll have more of a minimalist look, more of a Scandinavian feel,” McCarthy says. “I designed that space to have the focus not necessarily on the actual space because the focus is on the production space itself.”

McCarthy says the menu, which is still being finalized, will include pizza cooked in a small oven with a live flame, as well as the popular Bavarian pretzel; he expects it to open in the spring.

“I’m excited to see that come to completion because I’m excited to be in that space myself,” he says.