Blue Point Brewing Co. opens location at MacArthur Airport

If ever there was a place for the socially-accepted 10 a.m. beer, it's an airport bar. Long layovers, impending vacations, scrambled time zones — there can be many reasons someone might nurse a lager before noon. At Long Island's MacArthur Airport, the options for that beer have improved: A Blue Point Brewing Co. Brewpub has opened in the terminal.

Painted in crisp blues and whites, the space has a full bar and 65 seats, with a few tables overlooking the tarmac. There are drawings of oysters on the walls, flat-screen televisions and six taps of Blue Point beers such as Toasted Lager, Spectral Haze and Hoptical Illusion —but there's also cans of other Blue Point brews, bottles of Bud and Miller Lite, and several wines by the glass. The cocktail list runs to classics: Mai Tai, Paloma, Moscow mule and old fashioned among them.

On the snacking front, travelers can order pub classics such as a Bavarian pretzel, crispy wings, nachos or queso-smothered fries with bacon. Barbecue pork or hot fried chicken sandwiches, as well as a double cheeseburger and fish and chips, are among the heartier plates. Snacks are $12 to $16, and sandwiches are $19.

The bar replaces Maggie O'Shea's, which until recently was rated #55 of 55 restaurants in Ronkonkoma on TripAdvisor.

Blue Point Brewing Co. is the largest brewery on Long Island, having been founded in a Patchogue boatyard in 1998. The company was purchased by Anheuser-Busch AB InBev in 2004 and now operates out of a former college campus with a sprawling brewpub and oyster bar on the main building's second floor.

It's been a busy stretch of weeks for MacArthur-related news. Earlier this month, it was announced that a new airline, Breeze Airways, will become the fourth at the airport and run nonstop flights between Long Island and points south. And a redevelopment plan for the town of Islip includes a new terminal on the northern section of MacArthur's airfield, as well as a convention center and hotel.