09/08/2025
https://www.foodtimeline.org/restaurants.html
"Golden Door, Idlewild Airport, NYC
In 1957, Idlewild International Airport (now Kennedy Airport) was transformed from aging infrastruture to gleaming state-of-the-art crossroads of the jet set world. Among the many transformations, were food service establishments and airline clubs with private bars. The primary foodservice vendor was Brass Rail Inc. The Golden Door was the fanciest restaurant in the new airport. Menus were printed in several languages and the wine list compared favorably (albeit expensively) to the top restaurants in New York City. This was a time when visiting an airport for the sole purpose of exquisite dining made sense.
The restaurant's name was borrowed from Emma Lazarus' poem adorning the Statue of Liberty. The vision was the same; the demographic was different. Many famous people spent time at the Golden Door. Craig Claiborne, New York Times food critic, found the menu only slightly flawed. Robert Frost, American poet, was bewildered by all the choices.
Times change. In the mid-1960s the Golden Door was sold to Restaurant Associates and renamed Restaurant America. Idlewild was also renamed, honoring John F. Kennedy. This restaurant flourished, flatlined, then perished. The Golden Door/Restaurant America shuttered permanently December 10, 1971 by court order."
Food Timeline: history notes--restaurants, chefs & foodservice
