Flights of Fancy

The first time I ever heard of alcohol-affiliated "flights" was when Just A Taste opened on 116 N. Aurora St. in Ithaca, NY.  This EXCELLENT restaurant features great tapas and, for me, my first ever wine bar.  They currently advertise 40 wines by the glass.  Even better, this restaurant introduced me to the world of wine "flights."  Wow!  A restaurant that lets patrons sample 4-6 tastes of different wines.
To the best of my knowledge, this type of sampling opportunity in this area of NYS is unfortunately rare. Being wine country, I would think that this is a concept whose time has come.

Fortunately, it does seem like this concept is catching on here in the Finger Lakes, with more and more places offering brew flights of beers/ales/porters/stouts/etc.  If you've ever visited a brewery for a beer tasting, you know how enjoyable it can be to sample a series of 2-4oz. servings of several brews and compare the taste, color, clarity, aroma, hoppiness (is that even a word?!) and so on.  I think that as we visit restaurants, we all need to start asking for this option.  This is a great way to enjoy a pint - and taste 4-5 different styles of brewed beverages at the same time!

There is a growing number of breweries in the Finger Lakes Region and so far, by my tastes, every single one that I've been able to visit is doing a fantastic job!   I'll be sure to highlight some great breweries soon.  But tonight, I want to feature some restaurants that step up to serve tastings and/or flights of "brews."

Being based in Ithaca, I've found a few spots located near The Commons.  The Ithaca Ale House is located across the street from Just A Taste, at 116 N. Aurora St.  I've always enjoyed great meals at this establishment - a place that has a vary nice variety of appetizer and entree options.  They keep a beer list on each table and at the very bottom they always feature one flight of 5 brewed beverages and often have a second flight that may be seasonal or inspired by a local event like the annual Ithaca Brew Fest (http://www.ithacabrewfest.com).  They give a generous pour and I have found that a flight at The Ale House is too much for me, so I prefer to share it with a friend.  I recommend sitting outside to people-watch when the weather permits or far in the back when it doesn't.  The acoustics need to be tweaked elsewhere in the Ale House and I find that it can be hard to hear when it's busy - which is almost always.

There are several other establishments that have "hopped" on the bandwagon, pun intended.  Which leads me to mention the Bandwagon Brew Pub located just off the opposite end of the Commons at 114 N. Cayuga St. (http://www.bandwagonbeer.com).  They rotate their on tap house offerings during the course of the year, but their website lists an ambitious total of 14 options on their website - from the Peanut Butter Chocolate Stout (!) to the 9.5% abv Heavyweight 2x IPA and from the seasonal Pumpkin Ale to the Red Rooster Espresso Stout (made with Ithaca Coffee Company's Red Rooster Espresso).  I tried a flight of the house brews on tap while my partner went for a flight of assorted NY selections.  I suspect that they were having some temporary trouble with refrigeration on the night that we visited, as we both found our flights to be on the tepid side.  Nonetheless, we'll definitely go back to see what's on tap and what's on the menu.

Vegetarian mecca, the noted Moosewood Restaurant, surprised us when we stopped in one afternoon and asked the bartender if he offered any beer tastings or flights.  The answer was, "Yes!" and he sold us a flight of four brews from the locally based Ithaca Beer Company (http://www.ithacabeer.com).  Moosewood (http://www.moosewood restaurant.com) is housed in The DeWitt Mall, at 215 N. Cayuga St. #70.  (Note that the restaurant actually faces Seneca St.)   I'm not sure that the flight option appears on the menu, but consider asking for it next time you stop in to have a great meal or purchase Moosewood cookbooks, t-shirts or other merchandise.

Kilpatrick's Publick House (http://www.kilpatrickspub.com) is officially located at 130 E. Seneca St. but faces Tioga St.  We dropped by one wintry Saturday and inquired as to the possibility of getting a tasting or flight.  The bartender responded, "We do serve them, but no one's ever ordered one from me before!  Let me check to see what we're offering."  We went ahead and tried the selection of four brews that she offered.  But, we hit the jackpot this fall when we decided to visit for another tasting.  On this trip, the bartender (not the gal from the first visit) gave us a rundown of all of the brews that were currently on tap and let us choose four apiece.  Needless to say, we each chose four different selections (which came on shamrock shaped tasting boards) and then shared the eight of them with each other.  Yes! Kilpatrick's serves food too, by the way.

Finally, we felt that we'd hit the mother lode of brew flights while we were on vacation in July.  We were staying in a cottage over on Lamoka Lake (See the CCat posting on 10.3.11 entitled "A Week On a Lake") and decided to head into Watkins Glen to check out the Rooster Fish Brewing selections offered at The Crooked Rooster Brewpub.  The pub is attached to The Wildflower Cafe and together, they can be found at 223-301 North Franklin Street.  I'd eaten at The Wildflower a few times over the years and wanted to see what the pub side was all about.  The two-tiered tasting rack held eight samples and, for good measure, the barkeep added two additional samples!  Mother lode indeed.  Needless to say, we opted to share "just" one flight.  I think that the price was $18 and the pours were generous. The website (http://roosterfishbrewing.com/brewery.php) lists eight of the options available:  Firehouse Blonde, Cocoa Porter, Summer Sky Hefeweizen, Mad Monk Dunkelweizen, Dogtooth Pale Ale, Hop Warrior Imperial IPA, Dark Nut Brown Ale  and Old Cascade Amber Ale.

I hope this wets your whistle enough to want to try a flight of your own some time!

(CCat, 10.18.11, 4:15pm)