Nine years ago, Glenny, Julia, Max, and I were preparing for the grand opening of Oakland Yard. With all else mostly in order, our October opening was pushed back when the fire department rescheduled our safety inspection date to early November. Waiting for their final sign off, Glenny and I decided to take a short break after many months of planning and build out (and throwing a wedding on top of it all that summer).

So we rented a tiny cabin tucked away in the Eastern Sierras, a little autumn mini-honeymoon before the grand opening. It was quiet and calm with lovely fall foliage and very few souls around. About the only day my wife didn’t out-fish me was the last morning when only one fish was caught, as I was pulling in my line from a final cast.

Back at the cabin, we were packing up and I remembered to gut and clean the fish to add to our cooler. Here's where it turns from romance to a Halloween story of sorts. Friends, I have seen fish startle back to life after their assumed expiration before. But that day was the only time I've ever seen a fish, after showing no signs of life for hours - and well after the length of its belly was cut open and its guts and nearly all significant organs removed, become completely reanimated, flopping wildly from the sink and onto the floor, its cavernous corpse eyeing the back door. Like most things supernatural, I'm sure science could explain the spectacle, but it scared the absolute shit out of me, and my wife heard me hollering from the cabin while she was loading bags into the car.

Known shortly thereafter and forevermore as "demon fish", the thing simply would not die. I really just wanted to just toss it in the trash, but some superstitious part of me thought of the "Talking Tina" doll from The Twilight Zone, and that I'd incur its wrath somehow. So when demon fish settled (again), I wrapped it in foil, bound in many more layers than I’d usually employ, and put demon fish in our cooler. Its presence in the car made me uneasy, a feeling that never totally let up even as he was entombed in the freezer at our apartment. Four months and months, demon fish remained frozen and undisturbed. I could never bring myself to unwrap it, to look it it - let alone cook or with clear conscience serve it. It wasn’t until we moved from our Haddon Hill apartment nearly two years later, that demon fish was finally discarded - and, in a way, released again to the wild. It's whereabouts remain unknown.


Tonight, THURSDAY NIGHT FLIGHTS: Loire Valley Sauvignon Blancs and Bordeaux Rouge.
Nothing spooky and no curses here, just delicious wines, good music, and fun, friendly folks... 
White Flight (unrelated, but yes, these would pair quite well with fish)
2024 Thierry Delaunay Le Grand Ballon Sauvignon Blanc
2022 Lionel Gosseaume Climat No.1 Touraine Sauvignon Blanc
2023 Domaine Raffaitin-Planchon Sancerre
Red Flight (satisfying autumn reds for the cool evenings ahead)
2023 Château Beynat Abracadabra Merlot
2022 Château Tire Pé Diem Bordeaux Rouge
2020 Château Renaissance Bordeaux Supérieur Rouge
Flights $15 from 5-9 and wines by the glass until 9pm

SATURDAY 10/25: CHEVERNY FLIGHTS - Hervé Villemade & Simon Tessier
Taste blancs et rouges from two of the Loire Valley’s master natural vignerons
2023 Hervé Villemade Cheverny Blanc
2024 Domaine Tessier Cheverny Blanc
2024 Hervé Villemade Cheverny Rouge
2024 Domaine Tessier Cheverny Rouge
Flights $18 from 2-6 and wines by the glass until close!


Cheers,
Daniel