Adventure Tempts the Taste Buds of the Fly-to-Lunch Bunch

Lunch is more than just a meal to countless California private pilots. It’s also a launch pad for adventure in the skies--a reason to climb into that cockpit and take off into the great blue beyond.

The flying-to-lunch bunch makes no particular demands when it comes to cuisine. To their way of thinking, what you eat is less important than how you get to it.

Expense also is not an issue. “I’ve had many a $100 hamburger (counting travel costs),” admitted Jack Van Valkenburgh, a commercial property salesman for Coldwell Banker who flies a twin-engine, six-seat Beechcraft Duke.

Other pilots tell of great places to get a delicious sandwich for two for just $2.50--plus perhaps $50 or $100 travel cost.

Van Valkenburgh, said his “mini-airliner” has paid for itself “10 times over” and “made me a lot of deals I wouldn’t have made.”

Whether a business lunch or flying for fun, Van Valkenburgh’s favorite destinations are the Nut Tree in Vacaville and Jonesey’s Steak House in Napa.

Both eateries are located adjacent to an airstrip, but the resemblance stops there.

The well-manicured and colorful Nut Tree is a bustling tourist mecca with restaurants, wine cellar, gift shops, a toy shop and amusement train between an airstrip and Interstate 80.

Jonesey’s, Van Valkenburgh said, is about as attractive as a bus station, but it has good burgers and steaks.

“When I go with my family, I go to the Nut Tree,” Van Valkenburgh said. “When I go with the guys, I go to Jonesey’s.”

Saturday Get-Togethers

The “guys” are a group of businessmen who gather on Saturdays at Sacramento’s Executive Airport and pick a spot to fly to for lunch.

“Most of the places we go, we don’t go to because the food is good. The major part of going to lunch is the airfield, so you’ll be able to go out and kick tires,” Van Valkenburgh said.

Ed Callaway, a former scientist who gave up a job running an electron microscope to run Executive Flyers Inc. in Sacramento, lists the Yolo Fliers Country Club, a two-minute walk from the north end of the Woodland-Watts airfield, among his favorite lunch stops.

The anteroom is decorated with aviation plaques and paraphernalia, including a large framed display with autographed photos of famous pilots who have dropped by for lunch. Despite the country club title, prices are modest. A recent lunch came to less than $15 for three and was quite tasty.

Our companion at the table was Orin Koukol, a pilot who runs air tours to Hearst Castle, Yosemite and whale-watching sites on the coast. He came up with several more nominees for great eating places to fly to.

He takes passengers on Yosemite tours to Columbia, where the airport is a pleasant three-eighths of a mile walk on the Dondero nature trail through the backyard of Columbia Elementary School to the center of that quaint Mother Lode mining town and a host of eateries. The best of the lot, for Koukol’s money, is the City Hotel, a restored Victorian that operates as a training facility for the local community college’s school of hotel and restaurant management.

“We’ve always had good food there, and they will try things that most restaurants won’t,” Koukol said.

Other Koukol favorites where pilots can taxi directly from the airstrip to the restaurant include the Sheraton Inn dining room in Concord and Manzella’s Sea Food Loft at Hayward.

Other Favorites

Other pilots list other favorite fly-in luncheon spots in Northern California.

Bob Barham, manager of the state Air Resources Board’s toxic air pollutants section, flies his mother-in-law to Chico for lunch at the Plane Ole Deli, situated on the airfield. “For $2.50 you get a sandwich that will fill two people easily,” he explained.

Les Lyman, who runs farm supply stores in Walnut Grove, Clarksburg and Wilton, describes the Harris Ranch Restaurant, adjacent to Interstate 5 and the Harris Ranch Airport north of Coalinga, as one of the best places to eat between Sacramento and Los Angeles, whether you’re flying or driving.

Interior designer Georgia Demetre, another avid pilot, says her favorite place to fly for lunch is Half Moon Bay, where the airstrip is but a quarter-mile walk to seafood restaurants on the beach.

“What’s nice is to go right over the center of the Golden Gate Bridge, get a half mile off the coast and just shoot right up to Half Moon Bay,” she said.