Bradley Airport dining options

Maine Fish Market Restaurant

60 Bridge St

East Windsor, CT

860-623-2281

The sign

When flying in and out of Boston, I look at other airports at Hartford, Providence and Manchester and compare prices to Boston.  Usually Southwest flights in and out of Hartford, Providence and Manchester are cheaper, less harried, less disgruntled TSA employees, and on time compared to Boston.  The difference is flying into one of the three alternatives, I will have to rent a car and drive into Boston (hate driving in Boston), spend money on a rental car, drive on portions of I-95 (narrow lanes always under construction), spend money on parking the rental car over night in Boston which is about $30/night (most street parking is residents permit parking only) and spend about 1.5 hrs on the road, 3 hr round trip back to the far away airports.  But the upswing with a rental car is that I can take day trips out of Boston to ME, NH, VT, RI and CT.  Then there is flying into Boston which can be $ hundreds of dollars more for airline tix, but I can take the T out of the airport.  The T takes about an hour to get out to Boston College area because there is the terminal bus, and then either the silver line-walk-green line, or terminal bus-blue line-long wait to green-line, and then there is a walk from the T station.  A T week-long Charlie Pass is only $18, and I can go anywhere the T goes all week at one low price. The T does not go into ME, NH, VT, RI and CT, so my day trips are limited to a smaller of metro Boston.   These are the factors I weighed when deciding on this trip to Boston.

This trip it worked out that flying in and out of Hartford Bradley Airport was the most economical way to do it, and I had a car to go on day trips all over New England.  If you fly like I fly, and decide to fly into Hartford and go into Boston, the rental car agent will offer an EZ-Pass rental.  Take it.  That best and fastest way in and out of Boston is on I-90 the toll road, and there are multiple toll plazas between Hartford and Boston.  You don't have to stop, you don't have to have correct change, you can just zip on through.  Everyone and toll authority are happier if you get and EZ-Pass.  For me with my day trips out of Boston, I was going through toll gates left and right, so it worked out for me to rent the EZ-Pass.

Lobster

I got in fairly late into Bradley Airport after not eating all and a plane change in Baltimore.  Any of you making a plane change in one our finest airports such as Baltimore, Dallas or OHare know you got a workout ahead of you and you just need to get to the connecting gate.  Plus most of the food at these airports are bad, deep fried, or fast food, and I have become a woman of a certain age when bad fast food and greasy foods don't necessarily agree with my stomach.  You read that, you don't want to sit next to me on a plane if I eat bad airport food.  Anyway, on this trip, I did not have time to stop for food at the connecting airport, nor did I want the bad greasy fast food at the airport, so by the time I landed in Hartford, I was really hungry and wanting to eat dinner, and I still had to rent a car and get somewhere to eat.  I wasn't going to wait to get into Boston because I was so hungry.  Bradley is in a bit of a no-mans-land, and there isn't much around there.  Hartford is about 30 min south and away from where I wanted to go, and once I get on the turnpike, I might as well wait until Boston.   So, I quickly texted my old prom date pal and asked him if he know of a place to get dinner, preferred lobster near the airport.  He said Maine Fish Market just one township over from Windsor Locks where the airport is.

So off I went with Maine Fish Market in my phone GPS.  10 minutes east of the airport through an old mill and residential neighborhood, I was wondering where the heck I was going.  There was not one sign of commerce.  Then, at minute 11, there it was, an unassuming old building with a quaint sign saying Maine Fish Market Restaurant!  I will never doubt the old prom date ever again.  There was nothing else around the Maine Fish Market, so it was either do or die.  I walk in, and this place was packed to the rafters with patrons happily eating seafood, and the restaurant itself looks like it could be right out of the 1970s.  The waitress was a bit like Flo from Alice's, but she was quite knowledgeable about the menu, lobster, and caring for locals and tourists alike.  I got myself my 1st lobster of this trip.  Soup or salad and two sides came with my lobster for one fair price.  The kitchen prepared the lobster correctly.  It was so nice to be back in New England where seafood cooks actually know how to cook lobsters.  Having spent my formative years in Boston, I know how to break down a lobster.  When I first sat down, the waitress asked where I was from, and I told her I just got off a plane from Nashville.  She was expecting me to struggle with the lobster, but I grew up with lobsters and I know how to break them down and get every last drop of meat out the critter.  When I was done, and the waitress came to remove my dishes, she was amazed.  She complimented me that I did a really great job breaking down the lobster and executing like a New England pro!

First stop in New England was a success, and I was so happy to look forward to some awesome lobster meals to come.