Marketplace

LAX Terminal 1, which means you're already working against me before the food even shows up. Marketplace is one of those airport spots that looks like it's trying — decent layout, some signage that gestures at "local" and "fresh" — but I went in with exactly zero expectations because I've eaten at enough airport restaurants to know the game.

Grabbed a few things: a sandwich, something that was supposed to be a grain bowl situation, and a coffee that I needed more than I wanted. The sandwich was fine in the way that airport sandwiches are fine — bread slightly compressed from sitting, protein that had clearly been prepped hours earlier and held under heat. Nothing offensive, nothing memorable. The grain bowl had decent bones. Farro or something close to it, vegetables that weren't completely dead, a sauce that had actual acid in it. That's the ceiling in here and it cleared it.

What I noticed, because I can't help myself: the line staff was moving well. Short-handed but not panicked, which tells you something about how the operation is run. The person behind the counter knew the menu without looking at it. Small thing. Matters.

Coffee was thin. That's not a surprise. That's always the answer in terminals.

First visit, so I'm not comparing it to anything yet. I'll say this — for a captive-audience spot at Terminal 1 with a flight board overhead and 40 minutes to kill, it didn't embarrass itself. The grain bowl got eaten. The sandwich got most of the way eaten. I kept my receipt.

The third visit will tell me whether any of this is consistent or whether I just caught them on an okay day. I'm not optimistic, but I've been wrong about airport food before. Twice, I think.