Flight is a Thai and Asian-inspired gastropub on York at 78th Street that used to be called Dresner’s until it was completely revamped. The new setup (opened in October) is really beautiful inside, with muted, modern, intimate tones of grey wood and simple, elegant yet cozy accents.
Owners Dermot (beverage director, front of the house) and Golam (executive chef) did an amazing job with the transformation. Dermot has been in the ownership position of this location for many years, and Chef Golam has an extensive 27 year cooking career.
We got to sit in the coolest part of the restaurant: an elevated, sidewalk-side seating area that sits about two or three feet above the sidewalk and has long floor-to-ceiling windows/doors that can be opened in the warmer weather.
The concept of “Flight” is being able to taste many things during your time there. Aside from offering flights of wine and beer, they also offer whiskey flights, as well as food samplings like meat and seafood flights with brunch, lunch, dinner and happy hour menus. I like this idea, because whenever I am excited about a menu, there are always tons of things that I want to try but can’t because I get too full.
I was recently invited along with some other bloggers for a press dinner, where we got to sample a bunch of their signature dishes. Be warned, though, that we received small, tasting sizes of the dishes. Actual menu items are much larger portions.
My wife plucked her two favorite wine varietals off of their extensive global wine list: a Riesling and a Viognier, which were both really great. Crisp, light, refreshing, slight sweetness and easy on the aftertaste. I tried three of the 16 craft beers that they had on tap: UFO Ginger Land Wheat, Queens Pilsner, and Kona Big Wave. My favorite of the three was the wheat beer. I’m partial to that style. They also have a bunch of bottles available as well.
We started with some flatbreads on the table. This was similar to a pita, but more dense and much thinner. It was really nice and flavorful. It had a chewy texture as opposed to crisp, but in a way that almost reminded me of naan bread (which I love) or a thick crepe. It was served with a hummus-like dipping sauce. Very nice. I may have eaten more than my allotment for table sharing.
Next was a seasonal soup that they were offering, made from butternut squash and apple, and garnished with some basil. This was really smooth, not too filling, which I was happy about, and slightly sweet and crisp from the apple. It had great depth.
My favorite dish of the evening came next: Thai style coconut curry mussels. These were fucking delicious. I could eat this all day. The only negative about this dish was that I wished there was more liquid for me to drink or sop up with bread at the bottom of the bowl. So good. Spicy, light, warming, and just the right amount of seasoning.
The Thai meatball with dried crispy shallots, sweet chili sauce and cilantro was a really great bite as well. The meatball was a little harder than I had initially expected. Asian style meatballs tend to have more of a snap to them and are more dense. The flavor was great. Spicy.
In continuing with the Thai and Asian theme, the lump crab cake was dressed with a spicy sauce as well. The cake itself was a great texture: lots of good lump meat, and a beautiful golden brown crust. This rivaled the mussels for best dish of the night, for me.
The wild mushroom risotto was rich and creamy (marscarpone base), but not heavy. It was dressed deftly with a white truffle oil that really brought out the earthy flavors of the mushrooms.
The curry chicken was spicy as well, with bright lemongrass and cilantro flavors that made it herbaceous. It came with mushrooms, onions, peppers and eggplant, along with basmati rice. The only down side was that the chicken was a little dry. Perhaps thigh meat would have been better than breast meat for this.
The final savory dish was lobster ravioli in a butternut squash sauce and topped with a butterflied shrimp. The ravioli stuffing was lobster, basil, onion and shallot, and the pasta was hand made on site by Chef Golam. The squash sauce was similar to the soup course, but a bit more spicy and savory than the apple-infused soup.
For dessert, three different items came out. First was a brown bread ice cream that was absolutely amazing and, in my opinion, the best of the desserts. It tasted like french toast. The base was vanilla but bits of cinnamony bread were incorporated for texture. It was garnished with a sugar-dusted phyllo dough stick.
The tiramisu was very light, also with crispy phyllo dough on top. The dish wasn’t too sweet, which is good for me, and it wasn’t soaked in rum either. Not too boozy at all. Really nice, and it is one of their best sellers. This was my wife’s favorite of the desserts.
One of the other bloggers tried the apple tart. My wife and I didn’t get to try a bite, but it looked perfect, topped with some ice cream and the signature crisped phyllo dough for some crunch.
That about does it! I will definitely be back here to try a meat flight! They offer a burger, a filet mignon, a NZ rack of lamb and a NY strip, so I think I’ll be in good hands. They’re even going to be starting weekly jazz nights here as well, so I’ll be looking out for that too.
FLIGHT IS CLOSED