Airport Experience® News - ACDBE Issue 2026

DEEP ROOTS Three Generations of San Antonio Hospitality Prepared Cariño Cortez for the Airport

Above: Carino Cortez cuts the ribbon in front of Military City USA, which opened at SAT in partnership with Paradies Lagardère on March 13, 2026. Alongside Cortez is retired Marine Corps. Major General Angela Salinas.

BY DAVID GORDON

The Right Partner When Cortez first engaged with an RFP in 2018, she approached it by asking questions and paying close attention to who answered them. What distinguished Paradies Lagardère in that process was their openness. “Everyone there was accessible and willing to answer questions,” Cortez says. “It didn’t feel corporate and [instead] more like a strong partnership.” She was also looking for alignment in a partner, one whose identity could hold up against her own family name. “Paradies holds the same values I hold in business: care for the community, care for their team, doing things the right way, and hospitality are top of their list,” she says. “Those were all big things for me because in my community I’ve got a background and identity to uphold and my partner needs to reflect those same values.” Mark Fletcher, director of business development for Paradies Lagardère, has watched that alignment play out. “She brings a thoughtful, community-first perspective that ensures our programs are authentic, locally relevant, and reflective of

When Cariño Cortez’s grandfather helped found Mi Tierra Café in downtown San Antonio, he was planting a flag for a family and for a city. More than 80 years later, his granddaughter is still tending that ground, now as president of Cortez Hospitality and joint venture partner for Paradies Lagardère at San Antonio International Airport (SAT). Cortez grew up inside Mi Tierra, surrounded by the aromas, flavors and stories embedded in traditional recipes. She carried that sensibility into a business degree, then to the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park. From there, she joined multiple Michelin-starred kitchens in New York and Chicago where she developed the rigor that fine dining demands. Then she went back home. She founded Cortez Hospitality in 2015 and by 2019 had brought the company into SAT, where she now operates 16 units in partnership with Paradies Lagardère. Three generations in the restaurant business have a way of clarifying what you are actually trying to do. The airport, it turns out, is just the largest room she’s ever had to navigate.

Above: Cariño Cortez, president of Cortez Hospitality.

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AX NEWS JUNE 2026