(FORTUNE Small Business) – The Airport Gourmets

When George Chen began looking for new space to open his third Bay Area restaurant, he wanted a location that could really help his business take off. But when developers at San Francisco's airport approached him to consider setting up in the new international terminal, Chen took a pass. "I didn't know what they were thinking," says Chen, who's known locally for serving upscale "GourmAsian" fare. "Everyone knows that airport food is all about $8 hot dogs and $6 beer at a cheesy snack stand." But then the developers showed him their impressive $1 billion design, featuring sculpted steel, terrazzo tiles, and cherry paneling. When San Francisco's new terminal opens in December, Chen's Restaurant Qi and The Water Bar will be joined by 17 other upscale eateries, all independently and locally owned.

Soon travelers will bid farewell to the overpriced weiner and be welcomed by gourmet meals at airports around the country. The change in menu is partly due to the creation of new airport terminals and the fact that HMS Host, the food-service giant that operates 70% of the airport concessions in the U.S., will see many of its contracts expire over the next five years.

If developments at Portland's, Philadelphia's, and San Francisco's airports are any indication, there will be some bad news for Host and plenty of good news for independently owned restaurants. Small-biz-friendly Portland has kept Starbucks out of its airport in favor of The Coffee People, a local chain. Philadelphia went local, bringing in 40 home-grown businesses, including city institutions like Docks Square Brewery and Hymie's Deli. In San Francisco, "We're bringing in all local restaurateurs," says Bob Weinberg, chairman of MarketPlace Development, which is responsible for enticing businesses like Chen's. "When you're in an airport, you can't tell which city you're in. When you dine in one of these restaurants, you'll get local flavor."

While these new eateries cater primarily to travelers, many planners are hoping their airport-based restaurants will be a destination for residents too. Chen is banking that his new restaurant--with its $80 tasting menu--will be a midpoint meeting place between San Francisco to the north and Silicon Valley to the south. "I'm hoping that when people see how beautiful this terminal is, the locals will come to eat and shop too," says Chen. "Plus, there's plenty of parking."

While beleaguered pharmacists around the country are packing up their mortars and pestles, Howard Dall is shopping for more. Undercut by national chains like CVS, more than 10,000 independent druggists have gone out of business in the past ten years, says the National Community Pharmacists Association. But Dall's four Philadelphia-area stores are thriving, and he is looking to expand. His Rx for success with customers: "Service them to death," says the 54-year-old pharmacist. His Gladwyne Pharmacy--expected to gross $6.5 million this year--is a good example. The 5,000-square-foot store is packed with merchandise, a soda fountain transformed into a cappuccino bar, and an onsite Wellness Center that offers cholesterol screening, blood pressure monitoring, and other tests. Additional ingredients? A larger stock of drugs than the chains carry and special touches such as flavoring medicines for kids (bubblegum and peppermint are in) and for pets (liver and cheese). Talk about service: Dall took a telephone call from a stranger late one night and delivered his prescription. "I made him promise to become a customer," he says.

The last time we visited with DME INteractive's Darien Dash (FSB October 1999) he was building an Inter- net business that he said would bridge the digital divide. But at press time, his bridge looked like it might crumble. According to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing, Dash's company had only $27,222 in cash. DME's stock has plunged from $12 to $1. And its deal with AOL to create Places of Color (a dial-up online service and Web portal) is on hold until Dash secures more financing. Dash says he's still "firmly focused on solidifying [his] business partnerships."

The Sirolli Institute, an economic development nonprofit in St. Paul, is trying to create affordable consulting services for small business by training legions of "enterprise facilitators." This new breed of consultant is made up mostly of entrepreneurs willing to temporarily set aside their own businesses to offer free advice to Main Street's mom-and-pops. Think there must be a catch? There is. The Sirolli Institute works only with towns of 50,000 or less; plus, municipalities must raise at least $100,000 a year for the first three years to recruit, train, and pay an enterprise facilitator, often picked from a pool of local applicants. That may sound like a lot, but it was a bargain for Hastings, Minn., say local officials. Sirolli graduate and enterprise facilitator Ron Toppin, who owns a pair of clothing stores outside St. Paul, says he's spent 3 1/2 years in Hastings helping 210 local businesses hire additional staff, find financing, and ultimately boost profits. Among the companies that benefited from Toppin's free help was furniture maker Eischen Cabinet, which says it went from $100,000 in revenues in 1997 to $1.5 million last year, thanks in part to Toppin.

Roland Rogers raised money for his startup, BlackAthlete.com, without the usual runaround. The winning advantage was staying close to home, thanks to the Neighborhood Trust Federal Credit Union in New York City. This type of credit union specializes in loans of $500 to $10,000 for people with little or no credit history who work in low-income areas like Rogers' neighborhood in Harlem. "We wanted to start off small to establish credit," says Rogers, who needed the $8,000 loan to fill the gap between investor rounds. "And we wanted to be able to pay it back quickly." Although inner-city-based community credit unions have been around for 30 years, it wasn't until President Clinton established the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund six years ago that the existing 300 local institutions began to flourish. In the past year alone the three-year-old Neighborhood Trust Federal Credit Union has funded about 250 local businesses.

When Charlie Butcher said he felt indebted to his employees, he was not kidding. One day after selling his floor-cleaning supplies company to S.C. Johnson in September, Butcher handed out bonus checks totaling $18 million to his 325 employees. "Most of them couldn't talk. They just cried," says the 84-year-old former owner and chairman of the Butcher Company, based in Marlborough, Mass. After deciding to sell the family's 120-year-old business last year, Butcher got plenty of high-priced offers but decided to sell to Johnson, another family-owned business with a 114-year history of its own. To reward veteran employees, Butcher calculated the individual amounts by seniority and salary and wrote checks averaging $55,000. "The workers made [our company] worth what we got, so they deserve a big chunk of the return," says Butcher, who with his wife, Jane, went to the factory floor to personally distribute the checks.

About a year and a half ago (FSB March 1999) we said that Euromania should improve your mood. But the single currency, which at first looked like a golden opportunity for the U.S. small business owners who are trying to make it in Europe, is now turning into a goose egg. Many entrepreneurs, such as Fran Barsky of Cree Industries, an 85-employee semiconductor company in Virginia, now say that their products are too expensive for those who have only Euros to spend. Cutting her prices to stay competitive slashes into her bottom line, especially now that a Euro is worth only 84 U.S. cents. But Barsky and other American small business people venturing overseas may want to take a few cues from those who've dealt with currency crashes before. Among them is 3Di Inc., an Internet services company in Brea, Wash., that bills overseas customers monthly to keep a careful hedge on the cost. If exchange rates drop or rise more than 10%, the customer takes the loss or gain.