The mission of making wine fun and unintimidating continues; it’s just the food menu that’s getting a fall tweak at Flights Wine Bar on Bend’s west side.
“Food and wine just make each other better,” states Flights owner Kelsey Daniels. “Now that we have really gotten to know our customer base, we’ve realized that smaller portions and more shareable options are the way forward. If you’re trying three different wines for example, you can also try three different food items that pair well with each of those wines and have fun and feel satisfied.”
For those Flights regulars, never fear, as favorites like the mac & cheese are staying on the menu, just in a smaller portion so guests can also try something else. Chef Nick Ragazzo’s housemade sausage is also still on the menu but now offered on a charcuterie board with all the accoutrements. Seared scallops, another Flights fave, is now served atop a celery root puree with tender, bright green bok choy and celery oil.
“Smaller plates makes it more social and more interactive,” explains Daniels, who opened Flights in November 2021 with her husband, Kent. While owning a restaurant/wine bar is even more unpredictable than the couple ever expected, Daniels has figured out that Flights is becoming quite the locals spot—a good thing as far as she’s concerned.
“We now have a base of regulars that have become friends and getting to hang out on a daily basis and talk about what I love to talk about – wine – with friends, is super rewarding. One of the reasons Kent and I picked Bend was because people are kind and nice as a whole here. Add people who love wine and that makes for lovely company.” Daniels left a fast-paced career in the film/TV industry after nearly two decades to explore her love of wine. “In between jobs, when I could travel, I would always try and find the nearest wine region, my ‘happy place,'” explains Daniels.
. “Now that we have really gotten to know our customer base, we’ve realized that smaller portions and more shareable options are the way forward.” —Kelsey Daniels, owner Flights Wine Bar
With plenty of feedback from Flights’ local customers, Daniels and her staff spent a good amount of time reflecting on the new menu, which debuted Oct. 21. I stopped by that very evening and sampled several of the new items, which were all spot on and wine-friendly.
The new Autumn Salad featuring local chicories, delicata squash, persimmons and pomegranate vinaigrette was the best salad I’ve eaten anywhere in a long time. Other new dishes I highly recommend include Saffron Shrimp with fennel tomato compote, Smoked Yellow Tail with everything spice and red onion confit and the perfectly sliced pork loin with cranberry beurre rouge alongside glazed apples and parsnips.
The new dishes were made to pair with wine and that’s where Daniels’ expert advice comes in. As a Certified Sommelier, Certified Specialist of Wine and WSET level 3, she presents wine tasting in a unique format, making it easy to try new things. Flights features all styles of wines from all corners of the world. Four flights are featured regularly and one of them changes each week. There’s the Light Side with white wines, the Dark Side with reds, the Localish flight with wines from Oregon and Washington, as well as the Wanderlust flight featuring a wine region with varietals from different parts of the world.
Daniels loves helping people realize they like something they didn’t think they liked, “I’ve definitely been pouring a lot of dry Rieslings lately and that is shocking to people to realize they like Riesling!” Riesling is a white grape variety that originated in the Rhine region of western Europe, and while some varietals are sweet, others are dry or semi-sweet. Of course, she can also suggest the perfect food pairing with your new favorite Riesling or any other wine you’re enjoying at the moment, which brings us back to the food.
Several special events featuring food (and wine of course) are on the Flights calendar over the next few months. On Nov. 30 there’s a Cork & Barrel winemaker dinner featuring five courses, all paired with Va Piano wines. The Flights one-year anniversary party weekend is happening Nov. 12-13 and everyone is invited to the open house with new menu items featured in cocktail party style. There’s also a James Rahn winemaker dinner coming on Dec. 7. And the next Women Tasting Flights group is Nov. 14 with two flights of three wines and two food pairings.
“We love doing special events. They bring out creativity, especially in the kitchen,” says Daniels, who’s establishing quite the reputation for hosting such events. Besides the wine dinners and tasting groups, Flights also presents live music on Saturday nights and Sunday Trivia each week.
Flights Wine Bar
1444 NW College Way Suite 1, Bend
Wed-Mon 3-9pm
541-728-0753
flightswinebend.com
This article appears in Source Weekly October 27, 2022.
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