Airport Experience® News - ACDBE Issue 2025

Right: Superior Hospitality Group entered the airport industry in 1997 at Orlando International Airport, where today it operates six locations, such as DeSano Pizzeria and Greenbeat, in a joint partnership with Delaware North.

ON THE RISE The Sky’s The Limit For Tyrone Nabbie And Superior Hospitality Group

BY SALLY KRAL

Center,” he says. Concurrently Nabbie founded Superior Hospitality Group (SHG), which would go on to enter a joint venture with Fine Host Corp. to operate concessions at the Convention Center. “I started at the Convention Center as a banquet manager, was moved up in about six months to general manager, and then six months after that to minority partner and operating partner.” Nabbie’s experience at the Convention Center was instrumental in paving the way for a career in airport hospitality. “Spending time in Orlando allowed me to connect with the community and with decision makers,” Nabbie says. “And the same restaurant that I opened in 1987 with Concessions International became available for rebid in 1996. With the relationships and connections that I had, I was able to bid on and win that opportunity as an ACDBE prime.” From there, Nabbie says, SHG was “on an adventure.” The group won additional contracts at MCO as majority partner while still managing concessions at the Orange County Convention Center, and also operated several streetside locations in Florida and the Bahamas. But then the 2008 financial crisis hit – and it hit hard. “We learned to take a little bit of pain,” Nabbie says. “We lost a few contracts, we resized and we changed our business philosophy.” Rather than bidding on contracts independently, the group decided to focus

Tyrone Nabbie has been at this for a long time. Bouncing between his native Bahamas and Florida, he’s been in the hospitality industry for 40-plus years. “I’ve been in this industry as long as I’ve known myself, basically,” he says. “I started out in hotels and worked my way up the ladder, serving in pretty much every position possible, from busboy to waiter to bartender to restaurant manager up to vice president of food and beverage.” Nabbie arrived in Florida in 1983 to earn his B.S. in hospitality management at Florida International University in Miami. During his studies he entered the aviation industry, serving as beverage manager and food services manager at Dobbs House, Inc. , a tenure during which he managed more than 16 beverage units plus a full service restaurant, seafood bar, two snack bars and several mobile cart units in Miami International Airport (MIA). Bolstered by this experience, he joined Concessions International in 1987 as general manager, assisting in the opening and management of a restaurant, Floribbean Court, at Orlando International Airport (MCO). Nabbie was then recruited back to the Bahamas to take on hotel and resort management roles. But Florida would soon come calling again, marking a major transition in his career. “I was recruited back to Orlando in 1993 by a local politician who wanted to make sure there was diversity in a particular contract at Orange County Convention

Above: Tyrone Nabbie, president and CEO of Superior Hospitality Group

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AX NEWS JUNE 2025