From Coney Dogs to Cocktails: DTW Airport Food Guide

For about a century, two Coney joints standing side by side on Lafayette Boulevard have split downtown Detroit’s loyalty. Detroit Metropolitan Airport skips that fight but keeps the dish, then adds square pizza, Eastern Market corned beef, and cocktails built on spirits distilled in the city.

Two separate terminals shape your options. Delta, Air France, Aeromexico, and WestJet fly from McNamara, home to the larger lineup, while American, United, Southwest, and most other airlines use the smaller Evans Terminal. A shuttle connects them outside security, and switching means another pass through screening, so the practical choices usually depend on your airline. Your terminal matters even before you pull up to the curb at DTW, because each building keeps separate drop-off lanes.

At A Glance: Which Spot Fits Your Situation?

Match the stop to your clock and your cravings:

• Boarding in 30 minutes or less: ZaBot Pizza (Gate A36), Detroit Street Café, Farmer’s Fridge
• A meal only Detroit could serve: Leo’s Coney Island (McNamara), National Coney Island (Evans), Buddy’s Pizza
• Either end of Concourse A: Buddy’s Pizza (Gate A5), Gordon Biersch (Gate A74)
• A dawn departure: Great Lakes Coffee Roasting Co. (Gate B6), Cask & Craft (Gate A63)
• Something lighter: 7greens (Gate A64), Sora, Anita’s Kitchen (Evans)
• Time for table service: Cat Cora’s Taproom (Gate A24), Andiamo (Gate A30)

Where Do You Find a Real Detroit Coney?

A Detroit coney pairs a natural-casing hot dog with meaty, beanless chili, chopped onions, and a stripe of yellow mustard. Two hometown chains bring the tradition to DTW, one per terminal.

Delta flyers will find their coney at Leo’s Coney Island, a table-service diner between Gates A46 and A50 that fires up its grill at 4:30 a.m. and serves until 8 p.m. The Southfield-based chain also serves breakfast, which helps when the drive in from Detroit begins before sunrise. In the Evans terminal, National Coney Island, another Metro Detroit chain, covers everyone else.

A few details help first-timers order:

• The standard Detroit build is chili, mustard, and diced onions over the hot dog.
• Anyone skipping the hot dog can try a “loose,” which fills the bun with seasoned ground beef under those toppings.
• For a fuller plate, Leo’s Coney Combo adds fries and a mini Greek salad, a nod to the Greek roots behind many Detroit coney counters.

Is There Detroit-Style Pizza Past Security?

Yes, and the pizzeria that created the style runs it. The square pies at Buddy’s Pizza, at the far end of Concourse A near Gate A5, date to 1946, and the bar is on Detroit’s east side at Six Mile and Conant. The first squares came out of forged-steel pans sourced from local automotive plants, a method that still shapes the crunchy, cheese-crisped corners.

This outpost handles a leisurely meal or a quick stop. Grab a table for Michigan beer, classic cocktails, and wine, or carry a few squares and some Buddy Bread along for the flight. When everything else has closed, two robot bakers named Rosa and Enzo keep turning out personal pies at ZaBot in the Coca-Cola Room near Gate A36.

What Else Tastes Like Detroit?

Plenty, once you know the names. Corned beef runs deep in this town, and Grobbel’s Gourmet Deli in the McNamara Terminal belongs to an Eastern Market company that has produced it since 1883.

A homegrown apparel brand grew into Born in Detroit Kitchen + Bar near Gate B6, which offers three meals a day plus bar service alongside Born in Detroit merchandise. It shares space with Great Lakes Coffee Roasting Co., an Eastside Detroit roaster, so one morning stop covers espresso drinks as well as breakfast sandwiches. Across from Gate A64, the Detroit salad company 7greens shares a dining area with Wahlburgers.

A local pick waits on the Evans side, too. At Anita’s Kitchen, a Metro Detroit Lebanese restaurant whose roots date to 1981, the Mediterranean bowl combines mujadara, caramelized onions, hummus, tabbouleh, and pickled turnips with your choice of falafel, stuffed grape leaves, or chicken breast. A chicken feta fattoush salad suits anyone after something lighter. Coffee over there is a job for Detroit Street Café, which brews Zingerman’s, the Ann Arbor favorite.

Which Spots Offer Table Service?

Sit-down dining clusters along Concourse A. By Gate A24, Cat Cora’s Taproom, the gastropub from the Iron Chef, turns out pub food, cocktails, and drafts, plus a boozy milkshake for anyone stuck with a delay.

Pasta anchors the menu at Andiamo near Gate A30, open from morning through dinner with martinis on the drinks list. Sushi rolls and bowls of udon draw crowds at Sora, a longtime resident of the terminal. Farther down at Gate A74, Gordon Biersch pairs house lagers with burgers and German-leaning plates, and familiar chains fill in the rest, including LongHorn Steakhouse and Chili’s.

Across the airfield, the choice narrows to an Outback Steakhouse and Air Margaritaville, the Jimmy Buffett-inspired chain.

Where Can You Get a Cocktail Before Boarding?

The most locally rooted option sits next to Gate A63. Cask & Craft Local Spirits + Bites teams up with Valentine Distilling Co. and Detroit City Distillery for a menu built around their bottles. Signature drinks include a Detroit Bloody Mary and a Paper Plane, backed by beer from nearby breweries and a short food menu of breakfast items, sandwiches, and shared plates.

That distilling story has an older chapter in Windsor, a quick drive from DTW over the Detroit River, where Detroit businessman Hiram Walker opened a distillery in 1858. Its best-known label, Canadian Club, slipped back into Detroit by the barrel during Prohibition.

Other drinks vary by taste and terminal:

• Wine drinkers have Vino Volo, an upscale wine room with small plates, in the McNamara Terminal.
• Michigan wines and local beers fill the list at Ember’s, a lounge in that terminal as well.
• In Evans, Atwater Brewery, a hometown brewer known for its giant pretzel, pours pints, while Jolly Pumpkin, a Michigan outfit, serves its beer alongside pizza and other pub dishes.

Whatever you pick, watch the time. The McNamara Terminal stretches nearly a mile, and a tram runs above Concourse A to shorten the walk between distant gates. The B and C gates sit beyond a pedestrian tunnel lit by a shifting light show set to music.

Last Call

Detroit built cars, then Motown, and lately a fair amount of gin. DTW’s dining follows that same pattern of hometown names doing one thing well, so eating here does more than pass time.

That lineup reflects a deliberate choice. When the McNamara concession contracts came up in 2024, the airport authority backed operators with Detroit-centric branding, an $18.8 million transition that is still rolling out through 2026. Which is worth knowing before you plan around a specific counter: the list keeps shifting, and the newest Detroit names may not have been there on your last trip.

Flying from McNamara, you might pair a square from Buddy’s with a Detroit-made cocktail at Cask & Craft, while Evans passengers match a National coney with an Atwater draft before boarding. Either way, the city gets the last word as you head for the gate.