Alaska Airlines Lounge, Terminal 7, JFK

Oh, JFK Terminal 7.

It's ... the worst.  Tiny, drab, etc.  But at least there is an Alaska Airlines lounge, where I was captive for 2 hours.  My visit was on a Monday, from about 10:15am-12:15pm.

Setting

The lounge is located up a level, right past security.  There were, literally, just 2 other guests there the majority of the time I was, so it was quite empty.  

Entrance.

The entrance feels a bit grand, with a long hallway and lots of light.

Main Area.

The lounge is fairly small, but had virtually no one else in it, so this was not a problem.  The space has several seating types, a small buffet, a bar, and a barista.  Bathrooms, no showers.  No private work areas, no kid's play spaces.  Pretty basic, but relatively peaceful (I wish they weren't playing generic office music so loudly, but otherwise, it was fine).

Window Counter.

I appreciated the high counter so I could stand, although chairs were provided.  Unfortunately the view was of construction, but hey, natural light, standing desk, and power outlets, all I needed really.

Bar.

The bar was vacant during my entire stay, but presumably if I had approached someone might show up to make a drink?

Food & Drink

I arrived just past 10am when breakfast was being served.  I expected it to swap over to lunch sometime around 11, maybe 11:30am, but even at 12:15pm when I left, it was still breakfast.

I always love lounges for snack mix, and sadly they had none.  The highlight for me was the Coke Freestyle machine with plenty of flavors and varieties of drinks.  The barista coffee and chocolate chips were also satisfying.  

Brewed Coffee (Stumptown).

For those who want a quick fix, there is pre-brewed Stumptown coffee, both regular and decaf.  I tried both, they were pretty harsh, I suspect it had been sitting there a while. Given how empty the lounge was, and the fact that they have a barista, I'm not sure why you'd go for this.

Tea.

Also self-serve tea.

Decaf Americano.

But myself, and the two other guests, all went to the barista.

I ordered a decaf Americano, and was asked what kind of milk I'd like.  I said, "Uh no milk in an Americano ... " and sorta wondered what I'd get.

The result though was still good, hot, right ratios of espresso and water, and hopefully actually decaf.  Smooth, low acid, just a very pleasant cup of coffee actually.  4/5.

Muffins, Bagels, Toast, English Muffins.

On one side was the basic breakfast breads: toast (and a toaster), English muffins, bagels (including individually wrapped gluten-free ones).  

I was drawn to the muffins.  There were four kinds of large muffins (blueberry, cranberry streusel, corn, and cream cheese carrot).

Corn & Blueberry Muffins.

Indecisive and bored, I started with two muffins, corn and blueberry.  The blueberry one had a tiny bit of streusel on top (the ones that looked like cranberry had considerably more).

Blueberry:

This was not a bad muffin.  It didn't have that stale or highly processed taste to it that so many lounge/buffet/gas station muffins have.  It didn't necessarily taste homemade nor bakery fresh, but, for the type of muffin it was, it was far above average.  It was loaded with big, juicy blueberries.  Moist and well baked.  A sweet, almost cake style base.  Compared to great local bakery muffins, this was only a 3/5, but for a lounge muffin, it was definitely better than I'd expect, so coming in at 3.5/5 given the context, maybe even higher.

Corn:

I got this one really wanting cornbread.  I'll admit that.  So I was let down that it wasn't a much stronger corn flavor, and that it had no grit.  After all, it wasn't cornbread (although some corn muffins really do head in that direction).  It was well baked muffins, even, consistent bake, moist inside, good crumb structure, but it was again a cake style muffin, not a denser, gritty cornbread.  The corn flavor wasn't very strong.  But it tasted fresh, not too processed, and was again better than I'd expect in this setting.  3.5/5.

Carrot Cream Cheese Muffin.

After about 2 hours in the lounge, I was feeling peckish, and when 12pm came and went without the buffet changing to lunch, I went back for another muffin as "dessert" after having some salad.  This time, I went for the one that looked flecked with carrots, and stuffed with cream cheese.

It was fairly mild in the carrot-ness, definitely more of a plain (sweet, cake style) muffin with some shredded carrot rather than a carrot cake adjacent item pretending to be a breakfast item.  Besides the carrots, there was little else carrot cake-esque: no spices I associate with carrot cake, no nuts/raisins/pineapple, just, a basic sweet cake with some carrot.  Ok, I take that back, I thought it had no raisins, but near the base of my muffin, I found exactly two.  The cream cheese element was just that tiny amount on top, I had hoped it would extend into the core, again, I was hoping for it to be more like carrot cake with generous cream cheese icing.

So, did this satisfy my "I want real dessert like carrot cake" desires?  No.  But it was a perfectly acceptable morning muffin of this style (still not bakery fresh, or wholesome, but fine). ***.

Pancake Machine.

Since it is an Alaska lounge, of course they had the pancake machine.  It amused the few guests in the lounge.

French Toast / Scrambled Eggs / Omelet.

For hot foods, there was also French toast sticks, and basic eggs.

Bacon / Sausage / Hash Browns.

Along with breakfast meats and hash brown patties.

Oatmeal Toppings.

No cereal, but hot oatmeal or granola were available with some toppings.  I quite liked the chocolate chips.

Yogurt / Fruit / Jam.

Several kinds of sweet yogurt, jams for toast, cream cheese, and blueberries came next.

Salad / Cold Cuts / Eggs

And finally, some mixed greens and grape tomatoes, assorted cold cuts, and hard boiled eggs.  Ken's packaged dressing was available in a slew of flavors (I saw ranch, Italian, French, honey mustard, probably others).

I had a little of the salad, it was fine but very simple.