Away Cafe Bar

Terrible, rude bartender — 10÷15÷15, 4pm. I sat at the bar while my girlfriend was in the bathroom and she asked what I wanted. I said, «one moment I’m waiting for someone,» and she rudely told me I couldn’t sit at at the bar unless I was drinking or eating, so I stood up next to the chair while reading emails on my phone.
After a couple minutes she tells me I need to go sit in the chairs across the corridor. I asked her why and she said I can’t sit at the bar if I’m not 21 and not eating. I told her I was 21 and asked if she wanted to see my ID. She ignored that and said I was being difficult. Long story short, she threatened to have me removed.
My girlfriend arrived right after that, and I was telling her what happened off to the side while the bartender pretended to call security/​cops. I say pretended because I waited for a while and nobody ever showed up.
I travel in and out of JFK a lot. I will never go here and will recommend to everyone I know and don’t know to never go here either!

This morning August 10, 2015 between 8a-​9a i walked up to the bar and noticed the 2 black table mats were filled with crumbs from what looked like muffins. I said to myself no biggie so i just pushed the mat up and placed my iced coffee down. I then pursued to eat my croissant sandwich over my BAG, AWAY from the table while sitting on the stool with my mouth no where over the tAble (but my iced coffee was on the table)… As i got up to throw out my bag, what looked and sounded like a hispanic woman who worked at the bar came over to me and said «You have to clean this mess! This is a bar!“I was utterly embarassed since there was a Caucasian family sitting next to me looking at me as if i did something wrong as well as other guests. I politely told the woman I did not make this mess it was here before i sat down. Ofcourse she didnt believe me. she picked up the table mats and i continuously told her the crumbs on the mat were obviously from muffins and i had a croissant. I was so upset and walked off. I came back about 10 minutes later to tell her I did not appreciate the way she embarrased me in front of everyone present especially since i told her that it wasnt me. She sat on her stool barely acknowledging what i was saying, staring away like if i was a piece of dirt, and knodded. No apology no nothing. I have never been so disrespected in an establishment ever. I contacted Human Resource Manager and awaiting a response and I am not going to let this one fly without an apology of some sort. Especially since there should be cameras rolling to confirm what happened!

Terrible service. First off there was a hair in my drink and when I told the lady behind the bar she got it out with her finger right in front of me and turned around like she expected me to drink it. Then after closing out I signed the credit car slip and she came back with «did you forget to add more to the tip?» Who even asks a question like that to a customer.

I’m not sure what staff the other reviewer had serving her, but my experience was completely different.
Drove a friend to the airport to catch a flight as a weather front was sitting on top of NYC, so it was a toss-​up as to whether or not he was going to fly out. We agreed to relax here while waiting if flights would be allowed out, and it was a perfectly low-​key environment to relax in. Our bartender was helpful and welcoming, apologized for having a pretty thin selection of food left due to the late hour, and offered to warm the sandwiches we bought at the adjacent shop on the panini grill while we ordered beers from the Away Café.
Relaxed atmosphere, coupled with some interesting people-​watching as some passengers were getting WAY too drunk before their flights, and I’d say it was an unconventionally good time made of a bad situation. Good location, and a good experience.

I was pretty disappointed by Away Café bar. It’s one of the only two options in terms of food before the security checkpoint in Terminal 5 at JFK, which is not convenient for families and friends wanting to get a last meal at the airport together before saying their goodbyes.
My main source of unhappiness at Away Café was the service — right when we got there, the waiter/​bartender was extremely rude. He told people in a very superior way that only people who were going to buy something from him could sit on the chairs. His whole attitude was very demeaning. He kept asking us if we wanted to get drinks, but each of the drinks was at least $ 14… Um, not worth it. I wanted to order some food but the options weren’t great — the caesar salad was $ 9 and didn’t even come with chicken or any other type of meat! The other food didn’t seem that great either. In the end, we decided to skip this place and get donuts next door (there’s a Dunkin Donuts). I did go back there to buy some water and the woman behind the counter was extremely rude. I asked for water and she said «you’re going to have to walk over there behind you and get it. Otherwise I can’t ring it up!» She was extremely rude to customers. Someone like that should not be working at a job serving customers.
I will definitely never go back to Away Café. I was very disappointed.