Each time Simone Atenea Medina Polo flies out of the Edmonton International Airport, she orders a Patron margarita at the Chili’s Grill & Bar after getting through security.
She’s one of the thousands of people who make their way through security each day at the airport — travellers excited for an adventure, nervous about a fresh start in a new place, or relieved that they’re finally getting a much-needed vacation. What each has in common is that their first view after the frazzle of baggage checks and metal detectors is the Chili’s, which beckons during its open hours from 4am to midnight, seven days a week.
That airport Chili’s is the latest obsession of Medina Polo, an academic and experimental pop artist who performs under the moniker pseudo-antigone. Medina Polo is now seeking interviews with people who have stories about the restaurant for a short book.
“I think focusing on the mundane and the very simple things, like how something as insignificant as the Chili’s somehow becomes elevated to the dignity of subject matter to be studied — I think there’s something fun and goofy and playful about doing that,” Medina Polo told Taproot.
The airport Chili’s has always been a part of Medina Polo’s personal lore. But after posting a poll on her Instagram stories, which asked her followers if they ever thought about the Edmonton airport Chili’s, she decided to start a project on it — three-quarters of respondents said yes. She then brought up the idea to Craig Martell, who reviews Edmonton fast food on his Instagram account Brotherhood of Plates. Martell shared her fascination. She then asked Omar Mouallem, partly because of his documentary about Burger Baron, The Lebanese Burger Mafia.
“When I told Omar that I was chatting with Craig and that Craig was thinking about this, Omar said something along the lines of, ‘Yeah, if Craig is talking about it, it’s a thing,’” Medina Polo said. “I kind of got my confirmations that there’s something here.”
Medina Polo said there are two main elements behind a fascination with the airport Chili’s. First, Chili’s are alluringly scarce in Alberta — there are only five in the province since the chain scaled back in 2017. The remaining restaurants include two each in the Calgary and Edmonton airports (a sit-down restaurant and express kiosk) and a restaurant in Banff. A prospective diner requires either a plane ticket or a national parks pass to access the coveted margaritas and quesadillas.
“Because we’re lacking it, we want it. There’s this kind of pay-wall, this inaccessibility to the Chili’s that makes us have this, like, active pursuit of it,” Medina Polo said. “It’s something unconventional, and still conventional enough that it’s familiar.”
Additionally, the restaurant’s location in a prominent spot in the airport means it is woven into transitional moments in people’s lives. She describes the restaurant as “a liminal space... it’s the element of a transitional, in-between space, between things. It’s almost like being in purgatory or limbo.”
She said her first interviewee for the project associated the restaurant with coming into adulthood and finally being able to afford plane travel. That person later moved to New Zealand, and each time he left Edmonton after a visit home, he went to the airport Chili’s. “There’s this element of the ritualistic relationship that people have to it,” Medina Polo said. “You have to go through security to get there, you have to have a flight, you have to go almost through a rite of passage to be able to enter this sacred space.”
Simone Atenea Medina Polo is working on a short book about the enigmatic Chili’s in the Edmonton International Airport. (Supplied)
Through her work as a musician and academic, Medina Polo has amassed plenty of followers that are not based in Edmonton, and some reacted to her Chili’s posts with confusion. But locals were pretty invested in the restaurant.
“I think in Edmonton, we tend to hang on to the things that we find quirky and odd,” Medina Polo said. She noted the shirtless roller-blading guitar guy, the Talus Dome, but we could also add the motorcycle gang that hangs out at the Whyte Avenue Tim Hortons. All are slightly strange but very Edmontonian things that could bewilder a visitor.
“It’s part of how we make myths about the spaces we live in,” Medina Polo said. “I think we find ways of making them meaningful.”
Medina Polo invites those with stories about the airport Chili’s to share to fill out this online form.