Small bites and small sips OFFER A big flavor experience
Having a hard time picking just one thing from the menu? Fortunately, there is a tool to make life easier when you’re feeling indecisive: flights. Originally the province of extra-fancy restaurants or vineyards, flights allow a guest to choose several — usually four to six — tasting-sized portions of beer or wine or even pancakes.
Looking to try a bunch of flavors in one sitting? Here are a few places offering flights.
Five beers at Rockingham Brewing Co.
1 Corporate Park Drive, Unit 1, Derry, 216-2324, rockinghambrewing.com, about $7
Microbreweries were some of the first businesses to serve flights, and especially for breweries with large numbers of beer on tap or unusual flavors or styles of beer, flights are a good way to introduce a guest to a range of what a brewery has to offer, said Ali Leleszi, owner of the Rockingham Brewing Co.
“We offer custom flights of five different beers — 4-ounce samples — in our tap room,” she said, “which allows our customers to choose a variety of beers rather than settling on just a full pint. It’s usually first-time visitors who opt for a flight rather than a full pour. We definitely encourage [a flight] if people want to try a little bit of everything.”
Leleszi said many people who order flights come in with a general idea of what style of beer they’d like to try.
“Usually,” she said, “there’s a style that they kind of gravitate toward and we can help them craft a flight that would be toward their preference. Oftentimes we have five different IPAs on [tap], so you could do a full hoppy flight if you’d like, or maybe people will go for a darker flight, but maybe they’ll put a wild card in there for a beer that maybe they wouldn’t have tried otherwise, that’s outside of their comfort zone.” On any given day Rockingham Brewing has 15 beers on tap. “And we have flights of five,” Leleszi said, so they can order about a third of the menu at a time.”
Ordering suggestion: “We’re releasing a dortmunder, which is a traditional German-style lager, towards the end of April, Lelleszi said. “That’s a returning beer for us. It’s a collaboration with Kelsen Brewing. Also, sometimes we offer flight pairings….”
Four iced coffees or milkshakes or martinis at Yolk Grill
116 Bridge St., Pelham, 635-09925, or 6 Elm St., Nashua, 864-0695, theyolkgrill.com; iced coffees are $16.95, milkshakes are $20.95, martinis are $35.95
Emily Kurs from The Yolk in Pelham said a surprising number of Girls’ Breakfasts Out involve drinking a flight of martinis.
“There can be one person who gets it, but ideally we have couples come in, usually two girlfriends going out for breakfast. It makes for a good little Girls’ Day. You can pick three of our martinis that we have on our specials, and customize it however you like, and then we bring it on a little tray. Espresso martinis are always popular, and we have a chocolate bunny martini right now — it’s called a Bad Bunny.”
Kurs said the options for iced coffee flights are changed frequently.
“Usually every two to three weeks we try to change it up,” she said. “We’ll change up the flavors, we’ll change up the topping, basically to just fit the theme of the month. Right now … Easter is right around the corner. We have four different flavors related to Easter themes like Marshmallow Peeps. There’s one that’s carrot cake. It has a little brownie on top,” Each serving of coffee is about 6 ounces, she said. “They come as black coffee topped with a little bit of whipped cream.”
“The milkshakes follow the same theme,” Kurs said, “but they have different toppings, so you won’t be getting the same thing. … The same idea, vanilla, Oreo. We do some cotton candy sometimes. Right now there’s banana on there. We try to change up the flavors pretty often.”
Ordering suggestion: “Honestly, I’m an Oreo girl,” Kurs said, “so I love a nice Oreo milkshake with some vanilla frosting and Oreos on the rim. I’ll put whipped cream on there, too.”
Six flavors of ice cream at Social Club Creamery
138 N. Main St., Concord, 333-2111, socialclubcreamery.com
According to Cole Glaude, owner of Social Club Creamery, ice cream flights are a popular Date Night activity.
“It’s mostly couples in general that want to try a bunch of different flavors,” he said. “In total, [a flight] is a lot of ice cream — I think maybe just a little too much for one person. And if they split a flight, it usually saves them money instead of getting a couple of different scoops of ice cream.”
Social Club’s flights have six half-scoops of ice cream.
“Basically,” Glaude said, “it’s just a sampler of six different flavors and it comes in a six-slot egg carton. I want to say in total it equals about three scoops of ice cream, but you get six different flavors, so it gets you a nice variety. You can try out a good majority of our menu without having to commit to one flavor.”
The ice cream menu at Social Club has two sections — several varieties of familiar flavors that are available year-round, and several monthly flavors that are more unusual and only available for a limited time. Glaude said a flight allows enthusiasts to try all the new flavors at a time.
“A lot of people will try the four monthly specials,” he said, “and then have an additional two, or sometimes they’ll just do six of the classics that they’ve never been in before. Usually the staff will give them recommendations on their favorites, but it’s completely up to the customer.”
Ordering suggestion: “I would probably do at least two seasonals,” Glaude said, “just so they could try out the monthly specials that we have going at the time. And then I would probably do honeycomb, salted caramel, peanut butter brownie, and then probably like maple latte — those aren’t too far out, not like our deep fried pickle ice cream or anything like that.”
Five wines or liquors at Flag Hill Winery and Distillery
297 N. River Road, Lee, 659-2949, flaghill.com, $15
“We are a winery and distillery, so we produce all of our own wines and spirits that we serve,” said David Brustlin, from Flag Hill Winery and Distillery. “The flights in our tasting room are pretty straightforward. We have a wide range of products, and you can taste any five of them, so if you just want to do wines, if you just want to do spirits or you want to mix and match, so you just pick five. For wine we pour an ounce of each, and for spirits we pour a half ounce.”
White wines are a popular category for flights, Brustlin said.
“People really like dry white wines,” he said, “and our Flag Hill whites are very popular, but if people like sweeter whites, our Cayuga White [a fruity wine made from Cayuga grapes] and the La Crescent [a sweet dessert wine] are very well loved. We also have some carbonated wine, a bubbly version of the Cayuga White, which people love. Then we have a wide range of spirits. People tend to want to try our whiskey, because we grow our own corn, rye and wheat on site. We also have a wide range of fruit liquors that appeal to a wide audience. Probably our Maple Bourbon — which is our straight whiskey with maple syrup added to it — is the spirit that almost everybody tries.”
Four margaritas at Raices Authentic Mexican Cuisine
2626 Brown Ave., Manchester, 932-2770, raicesnh.com, $23.99
A flight of margaritas at Raices comes balanced on a model Ferris wheel.
“This is a margarita flight that we call La Rueda de la Fortuna,” said Jose, one of Raices’ bartenders, “and we have four flavors — blackberry, tamarind, mango, and strawberry.” This flight is very popular, he said. “A lot of people order this…. People share it with their friends.
Which one should you grab before your friends get to it? “My favorite is tamarind,” Jose said. Tamarind and mango.”
Four types of pancakes or mimosas at Purple Finch Cafe
124 S. River Road, Bedford, 232-1953, purplefinchcafe.com, pancakes are $25
A pancake flight at the Purple Finch is big, manager Meagan Prudhomme said — shockingly big.
“You get two buttermilk pancakes; those are just plain. You get two chocolate chip pancakes. You get two blueberry pancakes and then two Fruity Pebbles. It comes with fresh fruit on the board, so there’s fresh strawberries, fresh bananas and fresh blueberries. And it comes with whipped cream on it. These are full-sized, 6-inch pancakes. It might be the perfect family meal. Everybody can split it. A lot of people even get it as an appetizer for big parties.”
Prudhomme said that far and away the most popular pancake in the pancake flight is the one made with Fruity Pebbles cereal.
“Everybody is really surprised that the Fruity Pebbles stay crispy,” she said, “because everybody assumes that with it going into the pancake batter that they would become soggy. But no! They’re nice and crispy and delicious.” The cereal doesn’t actually soak in pancake batter, she said. It is sprinkled across the tops of the pancakes before they are flipped, so it doesn’t have a chance to get soggy.
Perhaps the best thing about the pancake flight, Prudhomme said, is “that it goes really well with our mimosa flights. We have a couple — we have one called the Taste of New England, where you get a mimosa from each season. The spring one is a honey-lavender-lemonade mimosa. The summer is a pineapple sunrise. The fall one is apple cider. And the winter one is called the Jack Frost and it’s made with blue curacao and lemonade. We also have a Rainbow Mimosa flight, and that one is orange Aperol and then mango cherry. We have a tropical Midori, which is a green color. And then the last one is the honey lavender lemonade, just like from the New England one.”
Several small pies at Slightly Crooked Pies
1209 Elm St., Manchester, 661-4575, slightlycrookedpies.com, three 5-inch pies or six 3-inch pies are $27
“I have found that a lot of people will look at a menu and they get overwhelmed,” Lauren Cline, owner of Slightly Crooked Pies, said. “And they have a hard time picking — ‘Do I want blueberry or do I want blueberry and lavender? Do I want cherry or cherry coconut crumble?’ And so if you do a pie flight you can try it all. And you can try a little bit of it all. With pies, you’re an attentive audience, you’re in a dedicated area, and you’re trying a dedicated product. And it’s a great way for you to be able to experience something that you might not be willing to commit to, right? So those of us who have food commitment issues, it’s a fantastic way to do that. And if you don’t like it, you didn’t really lose that much; it takes the second guess out of there.”
Five spirits at Manchester Distillery
284 Willow St., Manchester, 978-308-2867, manchesterdistillery.com, $12
Liz Hitchcock, the owner of Manchester Distillery, has opinions about the order in which a flight-orderer should drink her spirits. She suggests moving from light liquors with some subtle flavors to progressively more assertive ones.
“You might start with our vodka [which has a clean, neutral flavor], then move into our gin, which is a crisp, American, citrusy-forward gin that finishes with classic gin flavors like juniper, coriander, and angelica root,” she said.
“We then offer a taste of our barrel-finished gin,” Hitchcock continued, “which sits in a high char, white oak barrel for 90 days and takes on the color of a whiskey and gives it a great new flavor.” Barrel-aging gin is a fairly recent development in the distilling world, and many such gins are lightly sweetened, she said. “That actually gives me a little bit of a headache, so ours isn’t sweetened at all; it’s just finished in the barrel. Then you probably would move into what we consider a ‘contract whiskey.’ It is a typical whiskey that we have contracted from out of state, brought it in and finished in our own special way. We call it ‘Double Bluff’ because it’s a bit of a fun play on the fact that we’re kind of making up things as we go just like you do when you’re doing a bluff. It’s a bourbon whiskey and it’s got sweet corn with an honest rye. It’s smooth — in fact, even our barrel strength, which you can sometimes get in the tasting room, which is 110 proof, people are surprised at how smooth it is. And then finally, we finish usually with our chocolate liqueur called ‘Speedy,’ which is made with cocoa nibs, French vanilla beans, and sugar, which kind of is like the dessert at the end of the tasting.”
Four cupcake-sized cheesecakes at Big Dog Eats, Home of Choo Choo’s Cheesecakes
20 South St., Milford, 249-5008, bigdogeats.com, $22
According to Shanna Allen, owner of Big Dog Eats, what makes her cheesecakes uniformly excellent is that they all start with the same perfect cheesecake base.
“Our cheesecakes are always the same flavor,” she said. “It’s the toppings and the crust that change. You always get that same decadent cheesecake that we have.”
A flight of cheesecakes might vary from season to season, Allen said, but, “they almost always have a plain with a graham crust, then some sort of a fruit compote. That’s a classic. The fruit goes on the side, for the people that don’t want anything. We usually have another flavor which we have all the time — maybe an apple crisp, or a turtle, or a plain cheesecake with a chocolate crust. We make different kinds of fruit creams, fresh fruit sauces and compote, lemon and lime curds. That all depends on the season…. Right now, for the end of March, we’ve done pistachio and then for April and for Mother’s Day we’re doing a blueberry-lemon, which has our lemon curd topped with our blueberry compote. Our cheesecakes aren’t inherently too sweet, so it really complements the sauces and toppings.They’re normally garnished with edible flowers.”
While you might think most of these four-packs of cheesecake are bought as gifts, Allen said that isn’t the case.
“We have some people come in twice a week,” she said, “just to get them for themselves to bring home for dinner, and again, for after dinner. A lot of people will get the four and sit and eat and have a cocktail and then they will share like half of each so they try all four flavors.”
Four mimosas or cocktails or mocktails or iced coffees at Friendly Toast Bedford
4 Main St., Bedford, 836-8907, thefriendlytoast.com/bedford-nh, $19
Drink flights at The Friendly Toast are inspired by one particular time of the week, COO Staci Pinard said.
“We’re known for our brunch,” she said, “but we’re really excited about our bar program as well. For us, what we serve from the bar really needs to match the food. So we recently launched a spring bar menu. So we do a seasonal bar menu and we currently have three featured flights on that. We have three alcoholic flights, and then we have a wellness mocktail flight as well.”
The most popular flight, Pinard said, is a classic mimosa flight.
“This is something we do — rotate with some seasonal flavors. We’re headed into spring, so we designed the mimosas around that.” This includes a ‘Market Square” mimosa, she said — a classic orange juice-based version. “We have the Rose Berry Bliss,” she said. “This is a new addition to our menu. Most of our mimosas have your classic Champagne on it. This one actually features a really nice rosé prosecco, so you get a nice kind of rosé hint to it. We use our mixed berry jam, which we make fresh in house, and then it has a elderflower liqueur as well. And then fresh lemon juice that we squeeze in house as well.” There is also an “Extra Fancy” mimosa, she said, made with Stiggins’ Fancy Pineapple Rum. This is followed by a blood orange Aperol Spritz.
There is also a spring-themed cocktail flight, Pinard said, called The Secret Garden, with drinks making use of white wine, berries, tequila, coconut water, grapefruit liqueur and several other light, zesty ingredients. There is also a non-alcoholic juice-based flight with carrot ginger turmeric juice, pineapple, kale, guava, and more blood orange.
Three espresso martinis at The Miller’s Tavern
1087 Elm St., Manchester, 854-8442, themillerstavern.com, $20
You’ve got your choice of two different espresso martini flights at The Miller’s Tavern, said bartender Kristyn Merritt — a Light Flight and a Dark Flight.
“The dark has no Baileys,” she said, pointing to each martini in turn.
“Here is an Original,” she said, “and there’s a salted caramel, and a peanut butter. The original does not have a rim, but it gets the three coffee beans.” By this she meant that two of the martini glasses had flavorings on their rims. “The salted caramel has caramel vodka, RumChata, and it has caramel and salt on the rim. And then the peanut butter gets chocolate and peanuts on the rim, and has Screwball [a peanut butter flavored whiskey], peanut butter, and the Baileys. The original dark is just Kahlua, vanilla vodka, and espresso.”
“It goes without saying that there are some secret ingredients,” she said. “They are delicious, but they are secret.”
Merritt said the flight is popular after dinner.
“Customers wait till dessert,” she said, “and everybody gets a round of espresso martinis. But some people start with it.”
Four types of lemonade at The Spot Eatery
1461 Hooksett Road, Hooksett, 664-4249, thespoteatery.com, $12.99
“We have a lot of lemonades that we can actually do,” said Jill Lucas, owner of The Spot, “but on our board we feature four of them to go in a flight. One of our baristas came up with most of these and right now we’re calling our lemonade flight The Garden Social.”
“The first one is a cucumber and honey lemonade. It’s got fresh muddled cucumber with honey. The second one is a sunburnt mango lemonade, which is fresh muddled mango with Tajin [a chili-lime spice blend]. The third one is a botanical berry lemonade, which is fresh muddled strawberries and basil. And then the fourth one is a blueberry breeze lemonade, which has fresh muddled blueberries and mint.”
“We just started this flight a couple of weeks ago,” Lucas said, “but people have started ordering it. We make fresh-squeezed lemonade here, so this seems like a natural for us. We can do hot chocolate flights. We do coffee flights. We do chai flights. We can do, you know, lemonade flights. We do whatever somebody wants.”
