Why your favorite DIA restaurant’s food is different from its local, brick-and-mortar location

Locally owned places like Mercantile, Root Down don’t actually run their DIA restaurants; concessionaires do

Mercantile is a popular spot for travelers to eat in Concourse A at Denver International Airport on Feb. 28, 2024. (Photo by RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post)

When Justin Cucci would fly out of Denver International Airport more than 10 years ago, he’d usually pack his own food. “As a traveler, I was always let down by the food and the lack of Denver representation,” he said.

So when an airport concessionaire approached him about opening a branch of Root Down — his eclectic, farm-to-table restaurant — as part of a major retail overhaul at DIA in 2013, he decided to take the risk. “I thought it would be cool to make a statement about accessibility to craft food that’s sustainably sourced from local farms in the airport,” he said.

It paid off. Root Down, located across from McDonald’s at the high-traffic entrance to Concourse C, quickly became a favorite of travelers waiting for their flights. Last year, it was named one of the 10 best grab-and-go airport restaurants in the nation by USA Today.

It’s also among the highest-earning restaurants at the airport. Root Down did around $15.7 million in gross sales last year, according to a December 2023 sales report from DIA. That’s “considerably higher” than what the original restaurant, at 1600 W. 33rd Ave., earns, Cucci said.

Cucci wouldn’t reveal how much of that $15.7 million his company gets to keep, but restaurateurs at DIA typically earn 2 to 7%, according to multiple people interviewed for this story. The airport takes around 15 to 18%, and the concessionaire gets the rest.

“It was such a great opportunity to get into the airport, more than any of us knew,” Cucci said. “That first year, we thought our sales would be around $6 million, and in year one, I think we did over $10 million, so we very much undershot what that location was going to do financially.”