- December 4, 2025
Chelsea Herbert (right) and her children Poppy Jane and Truett cut the ribbon on the grand re-opening of the Landing Strip Tavern at the Flagler Executive Airport. Photo by Brent Woronoff
The Landing Strip Tavern owners Jamie Bourdeau, Chelsea Herbert and Joe Wright in front of the restaurant's entrance during the grand re-opening. Photo by Brent Woronoff
The Landing Strip Tavern's manager and bartender Rachel Arrington serves customers as the restaurant officially opens for business after the grand re-opening on Thursday, May 1. Photo by Brent Woronoff
John Parkes stands at the end of the new bar in the Landing Strip Tavern. Photo by Brent Woronoff
The Landing Strip owners Jamie Bourdeau, Joe Wright and Chelsea Herbert with Flagler Executive Airport Director Roy Sieger, Palm Coast-Flagler Regional Chamber of Commerce President John Phillips and Chamber Operations Manager Kelsie Lombard. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Laura Gilvary, Lacy Martin and Chelsea Herbert at the Landing Strip Tavern's grand re-opening. Photo by Brent Woronoff
Customers at the new bar area at the Landing Strip Tavern. Photo by April Koehler
The children's playground at the Landing Strip has a new helipad and slide. Photo by April Koehler
The Landing Strip Tavern held a ribbon cutting for its grand re-opening on Thursday, May 1, introducing the community to the newly refurbished restaurant at the Flagler Executive Airport.
The iconic restaurant had been closed for 10 months while owners Jamie Bourdeau, Joe Wright and Chelsea Herbert oversaw a major remodeling that included a new island bar with metal countertops and rivets to resemble a salvaged warplane, a stage for entertainment, a totally refurbished kitchen, refurbished restrooms, new drywall and exterior walls, new flooring, new seating, an event room and a refurbished patio overlooking the airport runways with an adjacent children’s play area with helipad swings and a slide.
(The restaurant) had to be cleaned up. And we wanted to have a new look. I think we accomplished that.
— JAMIE BOURDEAU, co-owner of the Landing Strip Tavern
“(The restaurant) had to be cleaned up. And we wanted to have a new look,” Bourdeau said. “I think we accomplished that.”
The original renovation plan was to close for 60 to 90 days, but it soon became apparent that the building needed major repair, Herbert said.
“We’d find one thing that would turn into 10 things. It’s a really old building. It’s an original block building from World War II. It was the original FBO (fixed base operator at the airport),” she said. “We found lots of things that we didn't expect, and it got piecemealed over time. There was no point in not just going for it, so we collectively made the decision that it was going to be a full overhaul, not just a facelift.”
The building is leased from Flagler County, which assisted in the project every step of the way, Wright said.
“The county really did work with us,” Wright said. “Bo (Snowden), from the building department, knew what the challenges were and helped us through. Roy (Sieger, the airport director) has been real helpful. Heidi (Petito, Flagler County Administrator) has been our teammate, we felt like, all the way through it.”
“It was definitely a public-private partnership, and we’re really thankful for them,” Herbert added.
Bourdeau, Wright and Herbert, who all own multiple businesses in Flagler County, teamed up themselves in 2023 to purchase what had been High Jackers restaurant, which had originally opened in August, 2001.
There had been other restaurants on the site before High Jackers expanded the building, Wright said. The restaurant has long been a destination for locals as well as travelers to the airport.
“A lot of people have been coming here for years,” Bourdeau said.
While Wright and Herbert joked that “insanity” drove the trio into buying the restaurant and rebranding it the Landing Strip Tavern, while knowing it would need to be refurbished, they said it was an opportunity they couldn’t pass up.
“People from surrounding communities all the way from Georgia fly here just for this restaurant,” Wright said. “It's made several of the flying magazines as one of the top-rated places to come get a bite to eat.”
Herbert said the location on Airport Road just off busy State Road 100 makes it a prime site.
“People don't have to drive to this restaurant,” she said. “They have to drive past it. So, the car counts you have in this area is crazy. It's an incredible location. And nothing against the beach, but I would rather watch the planes take off and land than I would sit at the ocean, so we thought that was really cool too.”
With the re-opening, there have been some additions to the menu, such as an ahi salad, which was a big hit at the soft openings, Wright said. But old favorites, such as the Tailwind chicken wrap and the hangar pretzel have remained. And Shrimp Night has been expanded to seven nights a week with a pound of peel-and-eat shrimp priced at $14.
At the ribbon cutting, Bourdeau told guests, “We know this restaurant means a lot to the community here. And we know you’ll love the next chapter.”
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