The Flying Machine: Just Food, or the Setting?

The Flying Machine: Just Food, or the Setting?

     The Flying Machine, a family restaurant co-owned by married couple Hokey and Joy Sloan and located at the Gwinnett County Airport, is a pilot’s first dining choice and my workplace. Quality-wise, the food is pretty much your average diner food, with choices of chicken tenders, burgers, fries, onion rings, and more- all mostly bought from restaurant depot, a foodservice supplier where edible products for independent restaurants, non-profits, and caterers can be purchased. However, the food isn’t bad at all, there are many menu choices that stand out over the other local fast food and diner chains. But I wonder whether the people that visit the restaurant come for just the food? Or are they also sitting down for the music, planes, or local people to enjoy on evenings after work.

     Gwinnett County Airport is home to various planes, helicopters, and aviation related companies such as fueling services, hangars, police hangar, a restaurant, and more. The family restaurant, also known as The Flying Machine, is a great place to sit and eat at, both for plane enthusiasts, music lovers, and private pilots stopping by. This restaurant is also my workplace; I’m not making a great ton of money, but the atmosphere is great. The restaurant has the atmosphere of a ‘blast to the past’ experience- specifically 22 years- as this restaurant has not been remodeled ever since its inception in 1998. The walls are covered in a dark green paint and aviation related art and posters, the twenty-year-old wooden chairs are slowly falling apart, the ceiling is filled with hanging plane kit models, and Hokey Sloan, the co-owner of the restaurant, plays the guitar on stage with his own original country tracks. Personally, I believe that it’s this overall atmosphere that brings usuals in over the food itself. 

     The menu provides choices such as sampler platter, corn poppers, fries, onion rings, fried pickles, fried green tomatoes, fried okra appetizers, ham, cheese, bacon and cheese, mushroom swiss burgers, country fried steak, chopped steak, pork chop entrees, reuben, club, philly cheese steak sandwiches, chili, vegetable, beer cheese soup, various salads, and multiple vegetable choices. The food is the pretty usual diner stuff, but it doesn’t taste bad at all. I personally really enjoy the deep fried onion ring, beer battered fries, and chopped steak with rice, gravy, and grilled onions, and the burgers which taste a hundred times better than other burgers served at local restaurants. However, I highly don’t recommend eating here if you’re on a diet, as almost everything is either deep fried or grilled and is therefore pretty harmful for your health (Watson), unless if you’re only planning on drinking water during your stay. Most of the people that eat here most likely want to eat some good ol’ tasty diner food and probably don’t care to dive into the “controversial nutrition science that usually focuses on single nutrients over dietary patterns”, as explained by Marion Nestle (45).

Co-workers Johnny and Dianna

     Coming back to the setting, it’s the multiple separate aspects listed above that brings life and a great atmosphere to the restaurant when all brought together. First off, the planes. The American diner has large windows that together stretch from left to right on the wall facing towards the taxiway and runways, providing a spectacular view of the traffic of the airport and its numerous cessnas, small turbine jets, and helicopters that come and go. Just past the large panel glass is a large patio with a low fence, providing the best and most up close view of the passing aircraft for non-staff members at the airport, as everything else is gated off. Every now and then, private planes will pull up and park right in front of the patio for the need of a food pitstop to fulfill the pilots hunger- all whilst providing a spectacular up close view of the aircraft and its guzzling engine at a low RPM, sending the vibration through the whole restaurant. This experience is not only just great for the kids that parents bring, but all of the adults and I alike as well.

Yours truly, Greg Loj

Moving on, this family owned establishment also provides great events for guests of all ages, both on and off of holidays. First of which is a once or twice per year B-17 World War Two bomber touring held right on the tarmac in front of the patio. It’s a mutual relationship between the guys who provide the bomber and the restaurant that provides the food: people come to see the magnificent aircraft, and then head into the building in order to fill themselves after the surreal and hunger-inducing one on one experience with the riveted four-engine flying beast of the past. Every couple months, another event is held where an Elvis impersonator comes in to sing a night on the stage. Although he’s just a fake Elivs, he’s pretty good at the looks and one hell of a singer. All the ladies come in to enjoy the extravaganza, while we provide condiments during the spectacular show. Every holiday season, two events are held on seperate days; one with Santa, and another with the Grinch. Both of these guys are pretty good at their work and get brownie points for their entrances, with Santa coming in with a helicopter and the Grinch with a paraglider. While they don’t have women screaming in love for them like the ladies do for Elvis, the kids really enjoy the show and its Christmas spirit.

Hokey Sloan

     Other than the yearly events, we have many customers that stick around once Hokey gets up on the stage- almost every night- and starts going at it with his own original music and live guitar and singing performance. Although I’m not a country music enthusiast, his music is actually not that bad. Hokey is a musician who writes country music and has tens of thousands of fans, with his music being inspired by a friend of his, Waylon Jennings. His most popular song, hitting almost one hundred thousand views on YouTube, is named “I Didn’t Give Her The Car”. The eight-year-old music video features him and his wife, Joy, experiencing a divorce in which Hokey doesn’t give her any of his prized possessions, only for Joy to pull out a bazooka on Hokey at the end of the video, from which the prop is still hanging on the ceiling to this day along with all of the other plane kit models.

     I asked a couple of the customers, especially the regulars, who I’ve been seeing almost every weekend now, what they think about the restaurant and it’s food along with what it is that keeps on bringing them to the place. The general answer provided by all of them is that they really like the people, planes, music, setting, and general atmosphere, in addition to some of the menu items, especially the burgers being pretty good and different from any other chain restaurant. One pair told me that they would kill for the onion rings that are served at the restaurant, and I do have to agree with them on that opinion. There was one thing that stood out for me out of all of the answers, the fact that The Flying Machine is a local one of a kind family owned restaurant and not some big company chain restaurant like McDonalds or Chick-fil-a. I asked Hokey and Joy the same questions during the closing hour, and they gave me the same answer when it comes to the atmosphere and setting intertwined with menu items that stand out when compared to the fast food chains. “It’s everything about this restaurant that brings it all together”, Hokey stated. Wise words, all from the man himself.

     When I go to a fast food or chain restaurant to eat, I’m mostly there just for the food and nothing else, while just relying on my phone for entertainment. However, The Flying Machine is a whole other experience. There is so much happening around that customers are pulled into conversations and the socialization that happens around peak hours, listen to the fantastic performance by the man himself, Hokey Sloan, or they choose to head to the patio outside and take in every aspect of the passing aircraft with their multiple sensory organs- all while enjoying one of a kind menu items provided by the original- blast from the past and unchanged for 20 years- family restaurant located at one hell of an amazing spot.

Works Cited

Watson, Stephanie. “How Bad for You Are Fried Foods?” WebMD, WebMD, 22 June 2017,                        www.webmd.com/diet/news/20170622/how-bad-for-you-are-fried-foods.

Sloan, Hokey. Personal interview. 22 Feb. 2020. par. 7

Nestle, Marion. “Eating Made Simple.” Food Matters. 2nd ed., 

        edited by Holly Bauer, Bedford St. Martin’s, 2017, pg. 45

All pictures from personal photography.