No matter what part of the world you’re in, airport dining options are usually grim. Whether it’s stale, sad panini in Rome or TGI Fridays in Tampa, I don’t ever expect to get any great eating done while I’m spending time in airports.

That is, unless I happen to be laid over in Charlotte, North Carolina, which since I occasionally travel up and down the eastern coast between New York and Miami, happens every now and then. Charlotte Douglas International Airport, you see, is home to one of my all-time favorite guilty pleasures and just about the only thing I like about not having a direct flight: Bojangles’ Chicken ‘n Biscuits.

Airport food to be excited about

I discovered Bojangles on a multi-connection flight from Italy once. I had been away for months and the yellow sign promising “chicken ‘n biscuits” was like being met at the baggage claim with flowers and a “welcome home” sign… except way more delicious.

Bojangles has lots of Southern comfort food items on the menu including mac ‘n cheese, sweet potato pie and of course fried chicken, but my stomach really only has eyes for one thing: biscuits and gravy. I don’t get sides or a drink or anything else that might get in the way of me and my gravy covered biscuits.

That’s me on the right. That’s Bojangles’ aaaaaall the way on the left.

On my most recent trip to Florida, I had the great fortune of having a layover in Charlotte, and you better believe I beelined for Bojangles as soon as I was off the plane. But it was perhaps one of the shortest layovers I’ve ever had, so that when my flight landed in terminal A, my next flight was leaving about 15 minutes later just a couple of gates down in the same terminal.  Bojangles, though, was in terminal B. So even though I was lugging my usual, ridiculously overweight carry-on piece, I booked it through the two long terminals like I had a flight to catch. Really, I had biscuits to catch, dammit.

They might not be the most visually appealing food, but God bless ’em, those biscuits are delicious. Soft and doughy, buttery and just slightly crumbly under their thick blanket of creamy, white, pepper speckled gravy, it was all the “welcome home” I needed, even if I was still a plane ride away.