Tail Winds Cafe at 44N GoFundMe

So the airport raised the rent and required the renter to upgrade the building? Sounds like they want the restaurant gone.
 
I love that place! It’s one of the best reasons to go flying! I’ll contribute something here in the next couple of days.

If that place closes that airport will see a huge drop off in traffic. I never get why airports seem to not want anyone to fly to them! Several months back I flew to 44N( I go there often usually at least once a month) and the airport manager practically begged me to sign the book to confirm I had flown into the airport. Curious as to why, I asked. He said, “well we need to make it look like lots of planes fly into this airport so we keep getting funding and to prove we are an active airport.” Looks like they may have changed their minds.
 
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Sounds like they might be trying to pull the same thing San Jose is doing to Reid-Hillview
 
C-1 PILOT said:
Hey Shep, Go Fund Me doesn’t look good. Only $680 since start up.
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And only nine donations. You would think that the locals or regular customers would total more people than that. If they won't support the place, why should anyone who most likely will never go there?
 
I’m not surprised. Whenever I try infrastructure fundraisers for Cloud Nine they fail miserably unless someone chooses to write a check for the entire amount.

It’s very hard to get infrastructure donations, and for a for profit institute institution I’d expect it to be even harder.
 
Might be a fun trick to get one of the YouTubers to get a colab of other YouTubers to do a YouTuber thing on the YouTubes.
For publicly.
 
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Does anyone know if Tailwinds is still open as of May 2019? Trying to plan an upcoming flight there if they are still open.
 
A friend of mine flew there last week.. it was closed and he said that he saw that a lot or all of the airplane memorabilia was no longer there, on the walls etc.. Sorry to say but it doesn’t look good.
 
jspilot said:
Does anyone know if Tailwinds is still open as of May 2019? Trying to plan an upcoming flight there if they are still open.
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From their Facebook page (here), it looks like they've been sporadically open a few days here and there since the end of March. The last update was that the restaurant was closed on 4/19, but it's not clear if that was just for Easter weekend or for good. They did post a phone number to call for status: 834-663-3190.
 
I'm going there in a few weeks, restaurant or not :)
 
Jim_R said:
From their Facebook page (here), it looks like they've been sporadically open a few days here and there since the end of March. The last update was that the restaurant was closed on 4/19, but it's not clear if that was just for Easter weekend or for good. They did post a phone number to call for status: 834-663-3190.
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I looked at that same post and wondered the same thing( permanent or not.) I really like that place and will miss it a lot if it closes. Such a stupid decision by the airport to kick out one of the only reasons to actually go to that airport!
 
steingar said:
I'm obviously getting old. I always though restaurants raised operational funds from customers, and upgrade funds from investors.
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Well my guess is that most of the GoFundMe contributors ARE customers.
At least these donations are voluntary.
I'll stop there.
 
Dean V said:
If the restaurant has to rely on a go fund me, it not a viable business.
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Read JSPilot's post:
jspilot said:
I love that place! It’s one of the best reasons to go flying! I’ll contribute something here in the next couple of days.
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Are you saying that he, and others, shouldn't have the right and the opportunity to contribute to keep the place open?
But in the long run, you are right. If there are not enough supporters, then the business is not viable. But those that contribute ARE supporters.
 
JOhnH said:
Read JSPilot's post:

Are you saying that he, and others, shouldn't have the right and the opportunity to contribute to keep the place open?
But in the long run, you are right. If there are not enough supporters, then the business is not viable. But those that contribute ARE supporters.
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Not many supporters either. Give all you wish.
 
Dean V said:
Not many supporters either. Give all you wish.
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Oh, I"m not giving them a dime. I'll probably never make it up there, so why should I support them.
But I don't think it is up to me, or anyone, to begrudge those that do support the place to donate to them. And like you and Steingar said, if they can't survive on their customer's support, then they probably shouldn't survive.
 
They are done. Shutdown and gone.
I've heard from a number of people what really went on, but I haven't talked to the former operator, so I won't post anything.
It's a crying shame.
 
Is the POU location still open?
 
jspilot said:
Such a stupid decision by the airport to kick out one of the only reasons to actually go to that airport!
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It is not really that simple. The Town (or State?) is requiring a bunch of very expensive upgrades to life safety systems (albeit unverified by myself) and neither the building owner nor the restaurant owner can come up with the necessary capital.

Very sad! I enjoyed that place, too. -Skip
 
GeorgeC said:
Is the POU location still open?
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KPOU was closed when I went up there a few weeks ago. The FBO said they were closed because of the terminal renovations, but it doesn't look good.
I think they also operated Tailwinds at 44N.
 
Did they get much traffic from non-flying locals? That seems to be the key to business. Airport restaurants that rely on fly-in customers will never graduate from being a hobby business. The restaurant business is fickle as it is, but depending on customers who only show up depending on the weather and don't consume alcohol (profit) makes it hard to stay afloat.

I've seen many popular airport restaurants; not all of them have major highway frontage, but they all had a loyal following from locals and had a good reputation.
 
Spring through Fall you had to wait in line to eat on Saturday and Sunday because of the locals.
They also had a group of 30 or more retirees who showed up every Thursday for breakfast, and businesses would rent the place for meetings (occasionally).
As far as I can tell, the closing wasn't from lack of traffic.
 
Shepherd said:
They are done. Shutdown and gone.
I've heard from a number of people what really went on, but I haven't talked to the former operator, so I won't post anything.
It's a crying shame.
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Yeah that’s really the truth Shepherd. That location was a staple in Northeast pilots flying. I’m so bummed by it. I Probably made 10-15 trips there a year. Anyone know of any other good places to go for breakfast? I love early morning flying and filling this void is gonna be tough.

Also, I get that it’s hard to pay for dramatic upgrades with capital you don’t have but the town/city is really not thinking smartly. Another example of how regulations close down a business.

Good luck to the owners and staff of Tailwinds. A very good group of people it seems.
 
It's very sad when your local airport cafe closes. I remember when Meadowlark airport closed and with it the cafe. It was my primary hangout in my early days of flying. Very sad. It's also sad when you have to resort to begging to keep the doors open. The whole "GoFundMe" thing erodes at people's creative approach to to keeping a dream alive. Not making it? Beg. It's really not much different than the guy on the corner with the cardboard sign that is begging for your money.
I believe that traditional ways of raising money help build character and allow the individual to experience victory, something that the PC culture frowns upon. Everyday they come up with a new way to destroy competitiveness among the youth and then wonder why so many businesses don't want to hire them. We've raised snowflakes and are now experiencing the blizzard. Oh well, the pendulum swings both ways and time will probably flush this whole PC line of thinking once they realize the damage they've done to our society. We can only hope.
 
Brad Smith,
Not to judge too hard, but the old generations were full of racists and sexists. So calling the new generations “snowflakes” is kind of a compliment comparatively. Gotta be able to take if if you can give it.
 
Flew to Westhampton NY (Gabreski Field) recently... Airport Code "K-FOK", you'll never forget that airport code.

Very nice people, literally the best French Toast I have ever had in my life. Strongly recommend.
 
Matthew Rogers said:
Brad Smith,
Not to judge too hard, but the old generations were full of racists and sexists. So calling the new generations “snowflakes” is kind of a compliment comparatively. Gotta be able to take if if you can give it.
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Not to judge too hard, but this modern generation has waaay more perverts than the one I grew up in. Just say’in...
 
hindsight2020 said:
what do you mean by pervert? Genuine question.
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If I have to explain it to you I proved my point. Anything goes in this society, even that which is “unnatural”. Of course, what may seem perverted to one is completely normal to another. No offense, but some things are not natural or healthy.
 
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Edit: sorry for hijacking the thread, but this is not a place for anyone to start talking down to either a single person or an entire generation. I take offense to Brad calling everyone in their 30s “snowflakes” and saying that being kind and open has ruined the world (none the less alluding to an entire group of our fellow countrymen as being “unnatural”). I won’t even go into my background, of why I am not a snowflake, because I shouldn’t have to.
Brad Smith said:
If I have to explain it to you I proved my point. Anything goes in this society, even that which is “unnatural”. Of course, what may seem perverted to one is completely normal to another. No offense, but some things are not natural or healthy.
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Ok, so I guess I can add one more to the homophobia tally. Thanks for being such a wonderful and understanding person! I suggest that if you have a problem with people being who they want to be, then you both get off the internet and go live in a cave. There you will not be offended by others making their own choices.
Unless you are claiming that these “perverts” are all actual criminals. In that case I would suggest that you instead look to the highly revered Catholic Church and Boy Scouts to find the criminal perverts that are actually out there. No offense to the other upstanding priests and pack leaders that have done a good job, but unfortunately those organizations have allowed actual abuse for too long.
 
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