Valpo’s First Thursday Gets Wine & Beer Flights | “The Uptown Flight!”
We think you’ll agree that the Valpo Restaurant Group’s ‘First Thursday Specials’ have helped elevate Valparaiso’s brand as a wonderful place to live! It doesn’t get much better than meeting friends for a few $7 food specials during this once-a-month Valpo tradition. But with an unquenchable thirst for making the ‘First Thursday’ tradition even better, the Valpo Restaurant Group has upped its game by introducing the ‘Uptown Flights!’ Now, on the first Thursday of each month, the Valpo Restaurant Group will serve $7 beer flights and $14 wine flights!
Pairing Wine & Beer with First Thursday Food Specials—It’s a Valpo Thing
Valpo attracts folks from Chicago and NWI with its remarkable international cuisine, outdoor dining, and live music. Yet it’s the ‘First Thursday’ $7 food specials that can be characterized as distinctively Valparaiso.
Everyone has a reason for why they love this night. For some, ‘First Thursday’ is date night. For others, ‘First Thursday’ is the one night a month put aside for meeting friends and neighbors. Of course, foodies love it for the remarkable specials on world-class cuisine. What can be better than a little indulging; especially when it’s with the people you love? Valparaiso’s ‘First Thursday Specials’ is a tradition that helps make Valpo a great place to live.
So what can be better than ‘First Thursday Specials?’ Well, the chefs believe they have some of the best wine and beer offerings in the Midwest. And, much like is the case with their food, tasting is believing. In turn, the restaurants have added beer and wine flights to their ‘First Thursday Specials!’ The Valpo Restaurants are calling the wooden paddles with four exquisite pours: “the Uptown Flights.” The chefs chose the name to show their respect for Uptown East Apartments, who helped develop the beer and flight idea. Uptown East even paid for the wooden paddles and glasses!
Beer and Wine Flights | A Win-Win for Valpo
The Valpo Restaurant’s couldn’t be more excited to welcome Smoketown Blues to the Group! Pure class!
According to Radius-Valpo’s Chris Pavlou, “The Valpo Restaurants originally created the First Thursdays as a means of creating a special night for our friends and neighbors. It encourages people to try each restaurant and its unique food offerings. It also helps our newer restaurants by leveraging the attraction of more established restaurants. Everything we do as the Valpo Restaurant Group is meant to create win-wins for our members, our community, and our charities!”
Radius serving Holy Wine? (LOL) Chef Chris gets Pius with the Bishop.
“The Uptown Flight also shows love for our members/sponsors that support our community events and fundraisers,” states Pavlou, who serves on the Restaurants’ grassroots board. “The Valpo Restaurants operate at no cost to taxpayers. But we couldn’t offer free events without the support of its members/sponsors like Uptown East, Grieger’s, Jano-Digital, and Perma-Green.
Most of our sponsors have been helping the restaurants create events since the beginning—often without recognition. Calling the beer flights and wine flights the ‘Uptown Flight’ is our way of showing respect and appreciation to Uptown East. Our members/sponsors attend meetings, aid with organizing events, and help pay for our operations. More recently, they contributed to last year’s Hilltop fundraiser, which raised over $31,000 and 3,000 pounds of food.”
As a member of the Valpo Restaurants, Perma-Green’s Steve Daly helped organize the Group’s fundraiser.
While Uptown appreciates the shout-out, the biggest winner in the new ‘Uptown Flights’ is anybody that loves beer and wine. The chefs call the beer and wine flights the ‘Uptown Flights’—Ivan Gressley from Uptown East calls it a win-win!
Beer Flights
These days, food and beer pairings have become the rage among foodies and craft beer aficionados. Combining the ‘Uptown Beer Flights First Thursday Specials’ with a beer flight is culinary magic!
With the combined value of Valpo Restaurants’ diverse food offerings and combinations of $7.00 food and craft specials, Valparaiso is uniquely qualified to lure craft beer drinkers to the “Vale of Paradise.” Imagine how cool it would be to pair Rudy’s Brisket and ribs with their fresh, seasonal beers!
Rudy’s pairs the Uptown Flight with authentic Southern Brisket & Ribs.
Picture meeting friends at Pikk’s Tavern or Smoketown Blues for ‘First Thursday Specials’ and a few beer flights while bathing in the live music of the Summer Concert Series at Central Park. And for anyone that loves pizza and beer, the Amici Beer Flight helps you discover which beer pairs best with an authentic pie. The opportunities are endless now that beer flights have become a part of the Valpo Restaurant’s ‘First Thursday Specials.’
Amici’s remarkable pizza will allow fans a chance to pair beer flights with pizza.
Here is a list of the Valpo Restaurants that stock the best variety of beers and offer beer flights: Smoketown Blues, Furin Japanese, Martinis’, Amici Grill and Pizzeria, Rudy’s BBQ, Radius-Valpo, Pikk’s Tavern, Tommy B’s Clubhouse, The Abbey Steakhouse, and Veleros Mexican.
Wine Flights
Valero’s wine pairs well with the Upscale Mexican Seafood
Each restaurant’s wine offerings are carefully selected to pair well with the menu’s cuisine. Veleros wine is the perfect compliment to her upscale Mexican cuisine and is selected under the watchful eye of Veleros’s Chef Saul Chavez and Venni Valle. Venni enthusiastically stated, “Veleros’s upscale cuisine is seafood based, composed of lobster, shrimp, and fresh seafood. Our wine portfolio is the perfect complement to seafood. Serving wine flights will be a huge hit with customers and their pallets.”
Element’s Wine bar pairs Italian Wine Flight with Nick Albano’s Rustic Italian Cuisine.
While Veleros Mexican selected their wine for its ability to pair with seafood, Elements Wine Bar took a path less traveled. Rather than the usual food-to-wine relationship, Elements chose its food based on its established wine selection. Here’s the skinny! Elements’ founder, Michelle Prossure, started her establishment as a wine bar and music venue. Michelle is a formally trained sommelier and certified Italian wine expert.
Hugely popular with fans of fine Italian wine, Elements eventually attracted the talents of Nick Albano, an Italian chef with a huge following. Working together, Nick’s rustic Italian cuisine greatly complimented Michelle’s wine. Elements quickly evolved into a destination for selective wine pairings and fans of authentic Italian food alike. To learn more about this improbable success story, read Guide to Outdoor Dining | Da Best Is Over Dare!
The Abbey’s Barb Sexton and Roxxy Chayhitz began their culinary partnership as two friends with a passion for wine. Barb was a restaurant owner and Roxxy was in real estate. It was over a glass of wine that they forged a partnership. Roxxy saw the Aberdeen Inn as a great investment for its location, and Barb saw the potential for it as a restaurant. It was a winning combination! These days, the Abbey is famous as a place for wine connoisseurs to hang out—especially on Wednesdays. But don’t confuse the Abbey as a wine bar; when it comes to steak and seafood, the Abbey is all business.
Just feet from the Abbey is Valparaiso’s spirited Tommy B’s Club House. Tommy B’s has long been known as the place to meet friends for a beer or glass of wine, especially after a round of golf. Next to Tommy B’s is the newest family restaurant, Pavlou’s. Pavlou’s is the newest venture by Radius-Valpo’s Chris Pavlou. Pavlou’s food and wine will have the same exciting atmosphere and experiences as Radius with the traditions and flavors of the chef’s Greek and Italian heritage.
The Flights Encourage People to Explore Different Cultures
The ‘Uptown Flight’ comes in three variations: a beer flight for $7, a wine flight for $14, and a premium wine flight priced at the discretion of each restaurant. The fun begins with deciding which ‘First Thursday Special’ for food or appetizers to pair with your beer or wine choice. As one might expect, ‘First Thursdays’ get crowded, and the chefs and owners are usually busy making sure their customers are having a wonderful experience. But if you get a chance, ask them for a pairing recommendation. You’ll never find a group of restaurants that love to share their knowledge of wine more than the Valpo Restaurants!
Chef Carlos and the legendary Don Quijote Cellar
According to Don Quijote’s Chef Carlos Rivero, “The Uptown Wine Flights is a game changer for fans of food and wine pairings. Most people find a wine they like and always order it, regardless of what food they order. The Uptown Flight gives my customers an incentive to try wines from different grapes and different regions. The proposition offers our customers an opportunity to explore different wines.
Carlos believes the wine pairing is similar to the advantages of his Tapas Bar offerings. Tapas are small plate servings that capture the flavors of each Spanish wine region. The small servings encourage people to try different foods from different traditions and cultures. According to Carlos, who has earned notoriety for his nationally ranked blog, Exploring Spanish Wine Regions, “It’s also why regional pairing is so significant in Spain. In Spain, food and wine have evolved around the culture and techniques of the region. They go hand-in-hand. Each Spanish region has a story; each Spanish wine region has a tradition.
The Premium Uptown Flight
Premium Uptown Flight at Martinis’
The ‘Uptown Flight’ comes as either a beer flight for $7 or a wine flight for $14. But many of the Valpo Restaurants will also offer a Premium Uptown Flight. This means people can upgrade to a restaurant’s special reserve selection of wines. Because fine wines fluctuate greatly in price and availability, the ‘Premium Uptown Flight’ varies.
Martinis’ Sophie Kalafatis states, “The option to upgrade wine flights to our special reserves offers wine drinkers a chance to explore our restaurant members’ finest wines. The availability of these wines as a flight will expand our opportunity for people to experience Valpo’s best wines and help support Valpo’s growing wine culture.
The Premium Uptown Flight should allow our restaurants an opportunity to showcase our member’s diverse wine offerings. Individually and as a group, we believe the Valpo Restaurants have the food and wine to impress people from culturally rich cities like Chicago, Indianapolis, and other hubs throughout the Midwest. It’s rare to find a city that can offer so much diversity and quality in a town the size of Valparaiso.”
The Martinis’ Patio is the perfect setting for sharing a few Uptown Flights with friends.
Kalafatis speaks from experience; her husband and partner hail from New Jersey and New York and spend their summers in Greece. The wines of Martinis’ pair well with Chef Louie’s scratch menu. I’ll meet you at Martinis!
The Uptown Flight | Pair It with Craft Food
Craft beer has a similar story in America. Many craft beers are unique to the part of the country that they come from. Chef Paul Loduca from Pikk’s is a formally trained chef, respected in Chicago and NWI for his remarkable pallet. Paul makes a commitment to searching for new craft beers from around the country and chooses his beers based on the seasonal ingredients and flavors of his artisan food. A beer flight from Pikk’s comes with culinary expertise!
When fresh food is in season and ripe off the vine, there’s nothing more delicious. Fans of craft foods—including our Valpo Restaurant members—have come to expect that food offerings change daily based on which products are fresh and most available. Quite often, these chefs don’t know the catch of the day or what local farmers have available until the day the fresh ingredient is delivered. But just ask any fan of ‘First Thursdays’; our locals love to savor the genuine wholesomeness that comes from fresh ingredients.
The Pikk’s Beer Flight will raise the steaks!
Fresh foods deliver a bright, lively experience that can’t be replicated by artificially processed foods. Artificial products are cheaper, easier to stock and sell, and last longer. Yet they can’t compare to kitchen-made craft foods. The benefits of serving a flight of craft beers and wine flights from the world’s best wineries offer ‘First Thursday’ guests the same advantages as the food and appetizer specials. For a new take on a Valparaiso tradition, visit one of the Valpo Restaurants and order an ‘Uptown Flight!’
Raise Your Glass—Here’s to Uptown!
The chefs toast Uptown’s Larry Gough! Salud!
The ‘Uptown Flight’ is exclusively available to participating chef members of the Valparaiso Restaurants. But if you love these wine and beer flights, make sure you raise a glass and give your thanks to the gang at Uptown East. As a member and sponsor of the Valpo Restaurants, it was Uptown that came up with the idea of having the wine and beer flight.
It was at a recent Valpo Restaurant Group meeting where everyone was brainstorming new ideas for events. At Valpo Restaurant meetings, everyone is expected to participate: restaurant owners, chefs, and members/sponsors. Uptown East did more than come up with the idea; they paid for the wooden paddles, beer, and wine glasses.
It might seem odd that the folks from Valpo’s downtown apartments would be so dedicated to creating new and fun things to do until you take a closer look!
Uptown shows love for residents by serving a free dinner from a different Valpo Restaurant each 1st Thursday. Cheers!
Uptown East’s founder, Larry Gough, was one of the original Valpo business owners that teamed up with the Valpo chefs and started having festivals and foodie events almost 20 years ago. Uptown’s folks also worked with the other sponsor/members like Perma-Green, Griegers, and Jano-Digital to organize last year’s Valpo Restaurants Christmas Fundraiser. $31,100 and 3,000 lbs of food were raised for the Hilltop Pantry.
We think it’s cool that chefs wanted to show their appreciation for their significant partner by naming the wine and beer flights after such kindhearted people. If you want to read more about Uptown’s efforts to make Valpo a special place, you’ll love reading Uptown Helps Make Valpo Best Place to Live.
Where to Find the Wine and Beer Flights
Click the logo or image to visit the restaurant’s website.
https://smoketownblues.com/
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https://valpodining.com/listing/smoketown-blues/
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https://valpodining.com/listing/don-quijote/
Radius-Valpo
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https://valpodining.com/listing/radius/
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https://valpodining.com/listing/martinis/
https://www.elementswinebar.com/
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https://valpodining.com/listing/elements-wine-bar/
Pikk’s Tavern
https://pikkstavern.davinci-group.com/
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https://valpodining.com/listing/pikks-tavern/
https://www.amicigrill.com/
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https://valpodining.com/listing/amici-grill-and-pizzeria/
Special Thanks to our members/sponsors…we couldn’t do it without them! Perma-Green, Grieger’s Motors, Jano-Digital, and Uptown!
https://uptowneast.com/
Valpo Restaurants Member Page
https://valpodining.com/listing/uptown-east/
Why Wine & Beer Flights Make Valpo “Best Place to Live”
Coming together as friends to bring Valparaiso food, beer, and wine events has been the driving force of the Valparaiso Restaurant Group and its sponsors since they began over fifteen years ago. Ironically, both the rental and food industry is often characterized by cut-throat rivalries. But this is Valparaiso! Fortunately, in Valparaiso, we have a culture where many businesses like Uptown East Apartments and the Valpo chefs believe the best towns, neighborhoods, and apartments to live in are the ones where everyone works together for a better community.
On behalf of the Valpo Restaurants and Uptown East Apartments, stop by ‘First Thursday’ and order a wine flight or beer flight. Just tell them you’ll have the ‘Uptown Flight!’
Written by Jim Jano Janesheski
Culinary Links
VALPARAISO RESTAURANTS CATERING
https://valpodining.com/catering/
