Huntington Quarterly Summer 2022

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O ne ofHuntington’smost unique restaurants isn’t located in downtown Huntington or Central City or near the mall. Instead, it’s located right next to a small airport run way.Welcome to the Fly In Café, located at 6090 Kyle Lane on Route 2 beside the Ohio River. The charming restaurant was never in owner Carl Bailey’s original plans for his life. As

“People kept telling me that we really needed a restaurant here,” Bailey said. “Well, I’m a general contractor, so I just decided to build one.” In 2014, Bailey began to build his restaurant from the ground up — foundation to roof, beam to beam. He created the long bar that fronts the main dining room and looks out over the airfield. When the restaurant

When the restaurant opened in 2016, Carl flew to Baltimore to bring back the fresh seafood that’s become the restaurant’s signature cuisine.

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The Fly In Café at 6090 Kyle Lane in Huntington has a loyal following of patrons who travel from all over to sample the large selection of fresh seafood.

a high schooler, he worked at Guyan Golf &Country Club and dreamed of becoming a commer cial pilot. Life intervened, and he went into the construction business instead. But his love of aviation was reborn in 2006 when he assumedmanagement of the Robert NewlonAirport, the state’s only grass runway airport. Two years later he foundedWest Virginia Skydivers, and the surge of visitors who came to dive and spend the weekend camping there made him realize they had few places to eat.

opened in 2016, Bailey (a licensed private pilot for 38 years) flew to Baltimore to bring back the fresh seafood that’s become the restaurant’s signature cuisine. He’d lived in Baltimore for a time and grown to love seafood, so choosing to make the café a seafood restaurant was natural. “Matt Ellis and I were the original cooks, but now I don’t have time to cook,” Bailey ex plained. “Our current chef, Justin Gilkerson, has been with us for two years. He’s great.” Although Bailey no longer

Carl Bailey flew to Baltimore to bring back the fresh seafood that's become his restaurant's signature cuisine.

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