The Lunch Counter was the small eatery located in the seating area near Gate 1 at Tom Nevers Field on Nantucket.
History[]
The lunch counter location at Tom Nevers Field was leased and operated by Helen Chapel for several years, having taken it over from her mother (and possibly her father) sometime in the mid 1980s when they retired and moved back to Texas (Return to Nantucket (Part 1), All For One and Two For Helen, & Come Fly With Me).
Serving a variety of soups and sandwiches as well as coffee for the airport staff and patrons, it was frequently used as a gathering hole by the main employees from Sandpiper Air and Aeromass, particularly Joe, Brian, Roy, and Fay, who all kept monthly tabs open for their meals. Helen often exhibited a long love-hate relationship with the lunch counter. Although it allowed her to meet new people and keep up with Hacketts' exploits, she felt it was a distraction from her lagging musical career.
When a new gourmet food cart, Carte Blanche, set up shop at the airport, Helen quickly lost her customers forcing her to try a variety of gimmicks to lure them back including decorating the lunch counter as a 50s-style diner and decorating it a southwestern cantina. The woman running Carte Blanche eventually moved her business to Boston because she needed more volume to be successful, but leaving the crew of Tom Nevers Field with no dining options other than Helen's lunch counter (Too Beautiful for You).
Stewardship of the lunch counter was eventually left Casey, Helen's sister. Believing that she would be moving away from Nantucket with Brian, Casey dramatically quit her job at Henley's Department Store and told off people all over the island, leaving her with no other employment options when Brian decided to stay on Nantucket to keep Sandpiper Air running for a year while Joe and Helen move to Vienna allowing Helen to study the cello under Klaus Sternberg (Final Approach (Part 2)).
Trivia[]
- The official business name of the lunch counter has never been officially revealed, but the menus appear to read "Airport Luncheonette" with an illustration of a single engine-propeller plane on it as seen in Lynch Party.
- No complete menu has ever been officially revealed, but a partial list of menu items can be found at Lunch Counter Menu.
