Tuesday afternoon, the Sacramento County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to approve the panel-recommended food vendors for the Sacramento International Airport’s new Terminal B. Although Old Soul Co. coffeehouse was not in the panel’s recommendations, the chain might still have a chance.

SSP is a company that owns and operates franchise food and concessions at airports. The board agreed to approve SSP’s recommended “Package 1” vendors (which include Peet’s Coffee & Tea and Starbucks) under the condition that SSP staff go into talks with Old Soul and see if they can come up with some agreement in the next three weeks on whether Old Soul will be in the lineup of restaurants.

The decision came after Old Soul owners started a petition to occupy one of three coffeehouse spots in the new terminal and collected more than 1,200 online signatures.

“We’re really happy with what came out of the meeting,” Old Soul co-owner Jason Griest said. “We’ll be a lot happier in three weeks when we have a final agreement and final decision to be recommended and voted into the airport. We do think it was a hard decision, and we think the airport staff and SSP and the board of supervisors did get it right.”

Griest and Old Soul supporters are sticking to their guns and insisting that there needs to be a local coffee place in Sacramento’s airport and are happy to be given the opportunity to provide it.

Justin Fanslau came to support Old Soul and said he is glad that it still has a chance.

“I think the board made a good decision to pause, because I think Old Soul is a valid option there,” Fanslau said. “I’m skeptical now because I know now that this company has a dozen and a half lobbyists, and the folks from Old Soul are going to have to work every day for the next three weeks to make something happen.

“To me, it sounded like a way to appease us, us being the Old Soul supporters, but I think their decision was good because we have a chance now.”

But Fanslau wasn’t alone. About 35 other people showed up to support Old Soul, and their numbers were balanced by those who showed up to support other businesses included in Package 1 and the airport labor force.

Executive Secretary of Sacramento Central Labor Council Bill Camp said he thought the board worked hard, listened and worked through the complexities of the matter. He, too, was happy with the decision.

Board Chairman Roger Dickinson, representing District 1, is all in favor of supporting local business but said he wants to be careful in making this decision.

“I think we all have an interest in trying to promote local business, so at least the idea of having Old Soul, which is clearly a locally based business, included in the airport, along with Peet’s, which has grown to be bigger than just Sacramento, has some appeal,” Dickinson said. “But I think at the same time we want to be careful not to upset the balance that was struck in the entirety of the recommendations that were made. It looks to me as if it will be incumbent on SSP and Old Soul coming to some sort of an arrangement before we could instigate some kind of change.”

Board Member Don Nottoli, who represents District 5, said he is happy to promote the addition of local flavor into the airport’s Terminal B and awaits the recommended amendment to Package 1.

“What we did today, in light of SSP and the airport staff’s willingness to accommodate the consideration of Old Soul, was in the board’s desire based upon Old Soul’s strong reputation and business plan. There’s obviously a lot of support and community here, so hopefully in three weeks we’ll see a recommendation that will bring that local flavor back into the mix.”

The Board will revisit this issue on Oct. 26 at 2:15 p.m. at 700 H St.