It began with beer and wine. Now, food flights are taking off

The , but at least food flights are taking off. On restaurant menus across the country and beyond, diners are seeing double. Or triple.

Or even, as in the case at the nine-course “taco experience” at restaurant in Los Cabos, Mexico, whatever the word for nine times a quantity is (we looked it up — it’s nonuple). And that’s thanks to the exploding trend of food flights. While beverage flights have long been a draw at breweries and wine bars, the idea of riffing on different presentations of a single ingredient or format is now proving a popular way for chefs to get creative with a favorite dish.



In 2024, went viral (up 496%, ) as home cooks tried out various spins on traditional deviled eggs. Now restaurants are capitalizing on the social media-friendly concept to bring diners in the door — and hopefully inspired to spread the word. “We’re seeing restaurants experiment with solutions to combat tighter margins and increased competition,” says Ming-Tai Huh, head of food and beverage at Square.

“Businesses need to get creative with their menus and their marketing to bring more people in. With this trend, restaurants are creating a fun and novel opportunity for consumers to taste more of the menu — and maybe find something they’ll really love and come back for again and again. And with these flights being social media-friendly, you can grow interest in your business as customers see your eye-catching specials across platforms.

” Debby Soo, CEO of OpenTable, agreed, saying that OpenTable’s own data and consumer research indicate growing interest in experiential dining. A gimmick as open-ended as a flight fits the bill perfectly. “Restaurants are meeting diners where they are with offerings that redefine the traditional to create truly memorable moments,” she says.

At restaurant in Phoenix, Arizona, chef Adam Dunton serves a butter flight on a wooden board to elevate the bread service. “Typically, we try to have three different colors in a set, so it almost looks like three scoops of ice cream,” he says. “We want a savory one, a spicy one and a sweet one.

In Arizona we have a lot of local honey, so we like to showcase local honeys with the butter, or certain dried chilies.” While Dunton insists he himself is “no social media guru,” the visual presentation of a dish is always top of mind for any chef. The butter flight, in particular, “pops out.

” And because the kitchen is constantly experimenting with new flavor combinations, it never gets boring. “We have a lot of loyal customers that come in and order it every time.” At in Manhattan, New York, diners are likely to start an evening with red or white wine-focused “Bites & Flights” pairings, highlighting a variety of cheeses, meats and dips.

But at in Brooklyn, restaurant co-owners Frank Falcinelli and Frank Castronovo are quadrupling down on their instantly recognizable mozzarella flight. “In our , we wrote about the art of the antipasto plate. One piece of advice in there is that people should not fill the spread with cheeses that are too similar to one another,” says Falcinelli.

“Mozz is the exception to the rule. There is no such thing as too much mozz.” Castronovo describes their four favorite forms of the mild fresh cheese: ovaline, nodini, bufala and burrata.

“As with a vertical of wines or any tasting of a product that is the result of such nuanced craft, it’s a pleasure to compare and contrast,” he says. The presentation is simple, but an embarrassment of riches for mozzarella lovers, which, as established, is not a niche group. “People love it and come back for it,” adds server Brendan Donaldson.

Some chefs are looking back to pre-Instagram times for inspiration to take flight. “My childhood friend’s mom used to make kid-friendly Jell-O shots in oranges and lemons for her son’s birthday. I only looked forward to my friend’s birthday for the Jell-O shots every year!” says chef Mohamed “Mo” Alkassar of restaurant in Miami.

“While conceptualizing Paya, I thought, ‘Why not add a whimsical childhood component?’” Tapping into that nostalgia factor — incidentally, another — the result is a duo of alcoholic Jell-O shots he serves inside baby watermelons and dragon fruits. Playful, eye-catching and unexpected, they have become a popular way to start or end a meal at the restaurant. Other chefs are casting an even wider net to spark creativity by uplifting staff in their own kitchens.

Chef Gustavo Pinet at Travesía, draws on the heritage of all 84 members of his culinary team for the signature taco tasting. “We’re almost lucky enough to have one cook from every state in Mexico,” he says, estimating six or seven people are involved in the making of a single course. That means there’s a diverse array of “hometown flavors” and techniques to teach one another as they cook up new ideas together.

Pinet, who was born in Mexico City, says the taco flight is designed to showcase traditional flavors, while perhaps educating American palates about what that really means. “If I think about 10 years ago, most people in the U.S.

wouldn’t have a real Mexican cuisine experience. Everything was focused on Tex-Mex with a lot of cheese, sour cream and that kind of stuff. So sometimes people think we serve sour cream on our tacos.

When they say, ‘I’m allergic to dairy,’ and we say, ‘No problem,’ they get surprised. But we don’t have any course with dairy.” He reconsiders.

“Well, we will need to skip butter in a couple of courses. But that’s it.” Pinet relishes the chance to put the taco in a tasting menu setting.

Even so, he encourages tourists to explore beyond the walls of the luxury resort. He likes to joke with diners when serving his taco al pastor that they could walk to downtown Los Cabos for myriad versions of the same thing. He also does a riff on a taco de suadero, a beloved street taco from Mexico City.

But he’s just as interested in subverting expectations: Another taco course in the flight involves a deep-fried oyster on a thin, fresh slice of jicama instead of a corn tortilla. Even the pastry chef gets to get in on the fun with a dessert taco to end the meal. Black mole, a sauce that usually shows off the savory side of dark chocolate, is sweetened with vanilla and garnished with peanuts and fermented pineapple jam.

“We try to keep the flavors on the authentic side of Mexican cuisine. But how we make the combinations and how we serve them, that’s where we find a way to change the traditional ideas,” he says. Like chef Dunton and others, he’s found the trend to be anything but limiting: “It’s a very open and endless possibility to work on.

” Emily Gerard is a writer at the TODAY show, by way of ABC’s Nightline and Vanity Fair magazine. She lives in Brooklyn where she entertains frequently. Her favorite dinner guests are dogs and you can find bountiful proof on her .

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