First-class fare for Glens Falls’ Flight
Restaurant, though themed, does not overlook the menu
Not so long ago, Glens Falls was rarely a dining destination for drivers south of Saratoga Springs unless they were hoping for a brewery or heading due north. But what a difference a few years makes, with Morgan & Co., Radici Kitchen & Bar and Farmacy Restobar all within a block; the hip Pakistani Alif Cafe with the chef-owner’s TikTok following; and vegan Birch Bark Eatery, relocated from Queenbury, whose customers come from hours away.
So it should be no surprise that on a wintry Wednesday night, Flight Wine
Bar & Market, the latest downtown addition in the former Fresh ADK and within the historic Empire Theater building, is as full as a flight to Florida. You’d best have a reservation or sit at the bar.
Checking in is a little different than your usual encounter with a maître d’. Flight's staff, from servers to bartenders, wear pilot uniforms complete with stripes and Pan Am pins, though the host’s shirt, a few buttons deep, adds a little more camp flair. We’re checked in for our flight time, led to seats and introduced to a menu geared toward European destinations, from garlicky escargot to crisp calamari. And while choosing between a-la-carte options or threeand four-course culinary flights, we’re handed travel wallets with boarding-pass menus for cocktails, charcuterie boards and desserts. It’s cleverly detailed and all very fun.
Tonight’s flight destinations are Italy and Thailand, but calling it a themed dining experience would undercut the high-end design and integrated yesteryear glamor of flying. If you’ve seen the movie "Catch Me If You Can" or remember when people dressed up to fly, could smoke onboard and flight attendants sashayed aisles in heels instead of cattleprodding guests into economy seats, you’ll have an idea. Welcome aboard.
We’re soon lounging with cocktails: a nuanced Commuter made with Tullamore Dew Irish whiskey, Aperol, crushed raspberries, grapefruit and bitters; and a gin Circumnavigator, too sweet for my palate but no surprise, given the complex combo of St. Germain, pear liqueur, pear puree, honey syrup and cinnamon stick. The Original Pan Am, a Bacardi-andorgeat cocktail frothed with egg white sounds more my speed, and there are international classics, from a Negroni to sherry-driven Rebujito, also available for sampling in a cocktail flight.
Owner Melissa Brennan operates 11 day care centers, with three more pending; business partner John Homkey is a local mortgage consultant. Their combined lack of experience in the restaurant industry was no deterrent. In 2016, Brennan followed a period of illness with a self-described “year of yes,” traveling to Spain and Portugal and “falling in love with how people interacted, calm dining and the way people didn’t sit with cellphones but talked and enjoyed wine.” When the pandemic grounded flights and impacted the hospitality industry, including Brennan's Fresh ADK market, she had the idea that “we could still take people there. You could visit through food.”
The clincher is that before opening, Brennan crossed paths with area chef Denver Grover, a Culinary Institute of America graduate who recently was executive chef at the shuttered Aviator restaurant, in the Warren County Airport, where Grover had built a loyal following. (I’d been tipped to go numerous times.) If the airline theme wasn’t coincidence enough, Grover was up for a new challenge, taking Brennan’s loosely sketched idea for Euro small plates and crafting a menu from scratch.
We decide on both engines: My guest a la carte, while I took a short-haul Thai flight, which hit the table at remarkable speed. Plump, scrubbed mussels jostling in a fragrant green curry sported torn basil and a lid of coconut-jam toast, while a loaded pissaladiere took the savory route with confit mushrooms and Saint Andre soft cheese, one of many on charcuterie and cheese board flights, and sold at Flight Market across the hall.
Grilled marinated pears starred alongside Spanish manchego cheese in a baby kale salad studded with marcona almonds; four beef satay skewers aboard a pickled cucumber noodle salad came
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thinly sliced, tender and beautifully rare — a departure from often chewy meat-on-a-stick — and succulent dipped in lemongrass sauce. An entree of slow-braised lamb ragu was rich and fork-tender over stracci rag pasta scattered in crisply fried Brussels sprouts leaves for texture. Only a monkfish filet tightly wrapped in prosciutto with saffron tomato broth felt oversalted, given the saltiness of the ham, but a subtle potato-cauliflower puree diffused the excess.
A remarkably inexpensive wine list keeps bottles in the $30-to-$40 range, which offset my disappointment in the minimal options by the glass and heavy reliance on Californian reds. There are a few juicy additions over $80 like a 2019 Pouilly-Fuisse and 2018 Penfolds cabernet, but for Flight, with its global focus, I’d have hoped for less common picks from Slovenia or Greece.
But there are dessert cocktails to win us back, including a smashing Affogato Martini with whipped cream, vodka, coffee liqueur and espresso, in a nod to the revival of the espresso martini. And out comes the final course of the Thai flight, a fritter of mango and purple sticky rice, darkly overfried, with mangococonut dipping sauce. We add the cookie fondue shooter, a sweet idea, which falls only in execution. Melted chocolate in a half-filled glass is too hard for dunking, so we improvise by pouring it on small plates.
Flight doesn’t devolve into service shtick. The staff aren’t carrying trays or serving cocktails with capped miniatures, though that’s a comeback trend, too. In design, it straddles modern and retro with a sleek bar, pendant lights that mimic the Pan Am logo and the kitchen pass visible through a stark, textured white tile wall, perhaps conceptually the pilot in the cockpit. Out front are mid-century modern chairs and Pan Am blue walls, the design by Brennan down to the original Pan Am flight bags that she found online.
That should be the end, shouldn’t it? Time to deplane; we hope you enjoyed your flight. But Brennan and Homkey have gone further, operating the daily market next door, planning future sidewalk patio seating and offering passport stamps per culinary tour. And they’ve partnered with Leaf Air in Queensbury
for VIP dinner-and-flight or dinner-and-flying lesson packages. With their renovated apartment in downtown Glens Falls, you can now fly, dine and customize your package with spa services and a private car to shuttle you around for your stay. So if
you’re traveling further afield, dinner at Flight can be the start of a weekend getaway.