Uptown Airport Group

A joint venture of three ACDBE concessions operators, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, serving as a prime concessionaire at Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

Learn More

Uptown Airport Group

A joint venture of three ACDBE concessions operators, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, serving as a prime concessionaire at Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

Learn More

OUR MISSION

To have a positive impact on everyone we serve by providing first-class customer service and exceptional quality food in a culture that promotes excellence.

Our Brands

Salsarita’s Fresh Cantina is a Mexican, fast casual, “build-your-own” concept offering freshly made entrées including customizable burritos, nachos, bowls, quesadillas, tacos, and salads.

Salsarita’s at Raleigh-Durham Airport begins each day at 3:30 a.m., preparing breakfast, dicing tomatoes for our five house-made salsas, and chopping cilantro for our hand-mashed guacamole. We make our wildly addictive tortilla chips fresh all day long because we can never have too many.

That’s the superior taste of real, fresh Mexican food — the wildly addictive secret behind Salsarita’s success. Get fresh with us today!

Char-Grill is truly a Raleigh, North Carolina original. If you are traveling through RDU, no visit is complete without treating yourself to a mouthwatering hamburger steak cooked to perfection and made right when you order.

Since 1959, Char-Grill has been sought out by local customers and “burger connoisseurs” who seek the ultimate hamburger experience. Made with perfectly cooked burger patties, melted cheese, crispy lettuce, and juicy tomatoes, a Char-Grill burger is a flavorful food sensation that should not be passed up. That’s why USA TODAY voted Char-Grill “Top Burger Joint in North Carolina.”

OUR PHILOSOPHY

“Enter to be Excellent” underscores our staunch commitment to providing excellent customer service and food quality, as well as cultivating excellent relationships with brands and airport partners.

Our Story

Uptown Airport Group, LLC is a joint venture owned by three ACDBE concessions operators, based in Charlotte, North Carolina, serving as a prime concessionaire at Raleigh-Durham International Airport.

Our mission is to have a positive impact on everyone we serve by providing first-class customer service and exceptional quality food in a culture that promotes excellence.

Our philosophy, “Enter to be Excellent” underscores our staunch commitment to providing excellent customer service and food quality, as well as cultivating excellent relationships with brands and airport partners.

The late P.J. Benton, founding partner and owner of PJJD Enterprises, Inc., had envisioned creating a separate joint venture company to bid on airport food and beverage concession contracts. She enlisted Floyd D. Young, founder and owner of FDY, Inc., to join the partnership.

In thirty years, Benton and Young had grown their sole companies from a single restaurant franchise and university foodservice contract to thirty concessions in six airports combined. They had agreed that creating a new enterprise would sustain their operations in a lucrative, competitive marketplace. It would also continue their legacies as leading minority-owned restaurant operators in the U.S.

However, given their foundation as family-run companies, Benton and Young realized the enterprise had a greater purpose: to help succeeding generations of restaurant franchise operators build their businesses exclusively in airports.

In 2012, the veteran partners met with Adrian Beard and Keith Haywood to join the partnership. Although both men held executive positions overseeing airport concessions — Beard, at PJJD and Haywood, at FDY — they wanted to pursue their own entrepreneurial dreams in the restaurant industry. As a result, Beard joined as Whitman May Enterprises, Inc. and Haywood, as Andstar, Inc., completing Uptown Airport Group.

In 2014, Uptown Airport Group had bid and won its first airport concessions contract at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. It serves 160,000 customers annually at Char-Grill and Salsarita’s Fresh Cantina.

As the airport concessions marketplace continues to grow, Uptown Airport Group is pursuing prime concessionaire and subtenant contracts, and joint ventures to meet the evolving demands of airports and their passengers as well as maintaining its competitive edge.

Our Leadership

Keith Haywood

President & CEO, FDY, Inc. and Andstar, Inc.

Keith J. Haywood is the founder and CEO of Andstar, Inc. He created the company in 2012 to provide dining offerings in international cuisine and healthy foods as well as local and regional favorites to airport passengers.

Adrian Beard

President, Whitman May Enterprises, Inc.

Adrian Beard is the founder and president of Whitman May Enterprises, Inc. He established the company in 2010 to develop and operate quick-serve and casual dining concepts in airports throughout the U.S.