Louisiana's Airport Art Deco Restaurant Has Front-Row Runway Views And Top-Rated Food Without Going Through TSA

There are classic New Orleans traditions essential to any trip to the Big Easy: listen to jazz on Frenchman Street, eat sugar-dusted beignets, and take an airboat swamp tour, to name a few. New Orleans has no shortage of cultural cachet and top-tier gastronomy, but for fans of aviation, Art Deco, Louisiana cuisine, or all three, there's a unique, hidden gem you must add to your next NOLA itinerary. Just a short drive from the French Quarter, Messina's Runway Café is located in the restored Art Deco terminal of the city's original, 1934 New Orleans Lakefront Airport overlooking scenic Lake Pontchartrain. The café's indoor dining room abuts the tarmac and is publicly accessible without entering TSA, offering a menu full of regional favorites and Cajun flavor, plus close-up views of the airport's working runway from floor-to-ceiling windows.

Messina's Runway Café holds 4.5 stars out of nearly 800 Google reviews. It serves classic breakfast, lunch, and brunch fare — from omelets and pancakes to burgers and salads — alongside traditional Southern classics like chicken and waffles, shrimp and grits, and crawfish étouffée. On weekdays, affordable blue plate lunch specials offer prix fixe dishes like smothered pork chops or fried catfish, served with sides such as collard greens, coleslaw, or cornbread.

On weekends during brunch the café serves bottomless mimosas, and The Infatuation in turn called Messina's Runway Café one of 2026's best brunch spots in New Orleans. Journalist Megan Braden-Perry recommends the generously lumpy crab cakes with poached eggs and brabant potatoes or butter-rich New Orleans BBQ shrimp. "My new favorite weekend brunch place," wrote one Google reviewer. "Sitting by the window, we had spectacular views of so many types of aircraft [...] The omelettes were light and fluffy and those potatoes are worth a second visit."

Initially named Shushan Airport, the "Air Hub of the Americas" was a social scene as much as it was an airport. It was luxurious, featuring tennis courts, a swimming pool, a ballroom, guest suites, and even a surgical care unit. Lake Pontchartrain is a picturesque sailing destination and America's second-largest estuary, and Shushan utilized it for the world's first land-and-water airport. Its terminal was elaborate, with murals, marble, terrazzo, a two-story atrium, and engraved stone motifs. Adding to its lore, the airport was Amelia Earhart's second stop of her infamous attempt to fly around the world in 1937, before she disappeared just a few months later.

Messina Runway Café was originally the Walnut Room, a nightclub paneled in walnut which hosted live orchestras and modern-day bottle girls. After political scandal, the airport was renamed, then lost much of its air traffic when Moisant Field (now Louis Armstrong International Airport) opened in 1946. In the 1960s, Lakefront Airport was walled in concrete, bunker-style, obscuring and removing much of its Art Deco style. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina flooded and destroyed much of the terminal's interior. After a meticulous 17 million dollar, multi-year restoration, the airport reopened in 2013. Messina's Runway Café now operates out of the renovated Walnut Room.

This will appeal to those who prefer to visit Frenchman Street instead of busy Bourbon Street to explore a more authentic New Orleans. If that's you, the runway views, savory menu, and Art Deco aesthetic of Messina's Runway Café at the Lakefront Airport should go on your list of unmissable things to do on a New Orleans vacation. "Absolutely beautiful dining room area," wrote one café visitor. "Try to get a seat near the bar so you can observe the runway and the planes taking off and landing. [...] One of the best breakfast spots in the city of New Orleans."