Provisions By Admirals Club: American Grab & Go Lounge Concept Opens

I visited Provisions last night. Even at 10:30pm, it was completely full. (The standard lounges had signs outside saying no day passes were being accepted because they were at full capacity, leaving Provisions as the only options for those with a day pass.) I'll be the contrarian to the unqualified claim that they are offering healthful options. I guess it depends on what you're comparing it to. Maybe better than bacon-wrapped hot dogs with white bread and Cheetos, but not what many would consider healthful. I chose the salmon kale salad, since it appeared to be the most healthful option. It was just fair. The greens were limp and wilted, and the salmon had literally zero flavor--the most bland salmon I've ever eaten. After eating, I turned over the container and saw it listed the nutrition info. Despite its simple, healthful appearance, the salad had an ingredient list a mile long, full of all kinds of artificial and otherwise questionable components, including Polysorbate 80, Xanthan Gum, Sodium Benzoate, Monosodium Glutamate (MSG), Calcium Disodium EDTA, and artificial smoke flavoring. Lots of ingredients banned by Whole Foods, Sprouts, Fresh Market, Earth Fare, and other more health-focused grocery stores. Moreover, the Caesar dressing, which is where many of the artificial ingredients were found, also relied more on soybean oil than olive oil. Even though it was a not a huge salad by any means (it looks bigger in the photos because it's on a wide plate, but it's only about 1/2 inch tall), it had 650 calories, 47g of fat (61% DV!), including some trans fat, 9g saturated fat, 1250mg of sodium (54% DV), and--somehow--zero fiber. I would say they have deliberately engineered the salads to give the visual appearance of being healthful while constructing them with the lowest quality ingredients that still make the top-line salad name technically true. I also noticed they had a disproportionately large number of staff compared to the number of guests and size of the area. It appears they are actively monitoring to make sure people don't shove their luggage full of food. Fair enough, but it means even the sandwiches and salads have to pass through a gate keeper, while several other employees are just standing around the perimeter monitoring. The employees were very pleasant, so there's that at least.

I spent 30 minutes in Provisions today. The space isn’t much to speak of but great service and solid healthy food options.

Fine concept, but it makes the lounge situation in Charlotte about 2% less dire than before: - the very large club between C and D, which is a terrific time warp back to 1997 and is always crowded and filthy - the club on B, which was renovated but has the layout and ambiance of a railroad galley - nothing at all on the perenially miserable Concourse E, which after several extensions is now a full 15 minute walk from any other club I don't think anyone can dispute that Charlotte is the nation's worst connecting hub... right up there with Denver Stapleton in the 1980s and Detroit in the 1990s. Both of those eventually got fixed, but CLT and AA seem content to keep jamming more flights on larger-gauge aircraft through a complex that is collapsing under the strain.

The CLT Admirals lounge is embarrassing. When a lounge is full, I would rather grab and go to the gate (empty gate area)...so this is fine. AA HQ is full of soccer mom types and grandma's/pa's who have middle America taste...and quite frankly, very uncool and always two decades behind the times. This looks like a Panera Bread (someone's idea in Dallas of hip and cool). I do not dislike Dallas. It's just not globally hip or cool. Ughh, even though I continue to dislike Delta, they come across as fairly cool (thanks even more to Virgin). DL is always giving cool vibes, and never middle America Panera bread/Lululemon soccer mom/hot grandma. Anyway, its an improvement nonetheless, and enough nice talk about DL.

Remember when the AA Exec card AF changed to $595 and they said premium foods are on the way and they’re going to uplevel the experience? The most I saw was fresh-made guacamole, and they directly credited that as a short-term thing to the credit card. I now usually skip the AA lounge and head to AS instead…