Gate 12 Bar & Grill at Easterwood Airport is a sweet landing spot for its owner J. Cody Whitten. The new restaurant, from the proprietor of J. Cody’s Steaks & Barbeque, is Whitten’s latest endeavor and gives diners a front row seat to whatever is happening on the runway.
The interior of the restaurant is designed with the aviation enthusiast in mind. To the left of the entrance, old photographs line the walls featuring images of helicopters making dangerous landings in Vietnam. Pilots in flight suits, whose planes wait for them on the runway, chat idly as they dine, their aircraft visible from their table. Model airplanes dangle from the ceiling, and a propeller from World War II’s famous Enola Gay bomber is suspended over the bar. In the restaurant area called the runway along the length of the building, diners sit mere feet away from taxiing planes with a first-class seat to view roaring jets as they take off and land.
Whitten was in the agricultural chemical industry before meeting a restaurateur in Abilene that helped him launch his culinary career. He opened J. Cody’s Steaks & Barbeque in 2001, and it’s been a popular College Station destination ever since.
Aviation has always been in Whitten’s blood. He is the son of an aviator and the brother of two pilots so the idea of opening a second restaurant at an airport was a natural fit. He was pointed toward an empty general aviation terminal at Easterwood Airport, he says. Fortunately, the airport was already seeking a restaurant and responded immediately. “Everybody got excited about it!” Whitten says. That was in Feb. 2019. It took a little time for the project to get off the ground, but renovations began shortly thereafter, and Gate 12 took off in Dec. 2020.
When it came to the menu, Whitten wanted to separate Gate 12 from J. Cody’s. “We hired an executive chef at Gate 12 that helped put the spin on the menu and elevated the recipes,” Whitten says, although a few items will be familiar to J. Cody’s customers, like The Gate 12 Burger that features the first restaurant’s brisket. Another is one of its most popular sides. “One thing that didn’t change was the CodyCorn,” Whitten says with a laugh. “People ask me all the time what I recommend, and I always say the house filet,” Whitten says. “There’s something for everybody. If you don’t want a steak, there’s chicken, pasta, fish. It’s all there.”
If the menu’s biggest draw is the steak, then the ever-changing view of aircraft outside the windows is the sizzle. “Ninety percent of the people that walk in this restaurant want to sit out here,” Whitten says of the runway room. On any given day, there could be a number of planes parked outside Gate 12’s window. Diners might catch sight of a Learjet, Cessna, Chinook helicopter, or even an A-10 Warthog. Whitten says an F-35 is one of his favorite jets that has come through Easterwood Airport, but his eyes light up even for the smaller training aircraft parked on the airfield. Diners can catch views of the runway from behind the bar as well, with sightings of refueling planes, medevac helicopters, and even the rare CV-22 Osprey on occasion.
Whitten and his team didn’t want diners to feel as though they needed to wear a suit and tie in order to be able to enjoy a meal at Gate 12, but rather, that the atmosphere have the feel of what they call “relaxed elegance." Their hope was that this would instill the right message that would make everyone feel welcome.
Opening a restaurant during a global pandemic hasn’t been easy, but Whitten sees a silver lining in it. With fewer customers dining out during the pandemic, Gate 12 was able to take its time in opening, and staff were able to avoid being slammed right out of the gate. From the beginning, Whitten says, “I wanted to get it right.”
Now that Gate 12 Bar & Grill is flying high as one of the area’s busiest new restaurants, Whitten is thankful. “I love being here,” he says. “To be here occupying this space — it’s a privilege.”
From the Menu
Fried Oysters: This savory appetizer gets your meal rolling. Served with roasted garlic cheddar grits and a jicama slaw, these saltwater shellfish morsels bring a bite of coastal flavor to the Brazos Valley.
House Filet: Gate 12 definitely respects the steak, as evidenced by this 8 oz. cut. Glazed with brown sugar and bourbon, it’s served atop a creamy bed of J. Cody’s famous CodyCorn that’s found a second home at Gate 12 with roasted potatoes and a side of asparagus.
Apricot Horseradish Glazed Salmon: The name says it all: this salmon has layers of flavor. In addition to the sweet and spicy glaze, it is topped with two grilled shrimp and finished with a creole mustard butter sauce.
Beef Stroganoff: When comfort food is what you crave, try this creamy combination of seared tenderloin tips, mushrooms, onions, and a rich and hearty fond de veau sauce tossed with cavatelli pasta and topped with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of Parmesan cheese.
The Enola Gay Propellor
The propeller suspended over the bar in Gate 12 Bar & Grill took a circuitous route to get there. The four-bladed propeller is believed to come from the famed Enola Gay, the B-29 bomber that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima during World War II. After its military service concluded, the propeller was acquired by Texas A&M University in the late 1940s. The propeller found a new home powering a wind tunnel for the university; however, it was damaged while a model came apart during testing and had to be retired. The propeller was moved to storage where it collected dust. When the wind tunnel management heard news that J. Cody Whitten was opening a new restaurant at Easterwood Airport, a deal was struck, and the propeller was moved to Gate 12 Bar & Grill so diners could appreciate this historical artifact.
