For our May spotlight, we spoke with Kelsey Daniels, co-owner (with her husband, Kent) of Flights Wine Bar.
航班葡萄酒吧, located in Bend, Oregon, went from pipe dream to reality after Daniels quit her job in film production to pursue her passion. With Daniels’ expert wine curation (she personally does all the wine tasting and buying herself) and chef Nick Ragazzo’s perfectly paired food menu, Flights Wine Bar is a must-see for locals and travelers alike.
Can you tell me a little bit about what you do?
At the wine bar, we do wine flights—four different flights, and those change every week. We also do wine by the glass, have retail bottle sales, and then have a full-service kitchen for lunch and dinner.
What made you decide to start Flights Wine Bar?
It was kind of a pipe dream for a long time. I was in a completely different industry, film production, so it was kind of untraditional.
Wine was always a passion of mine, and we needed to move out of state for my husband’s job. So, I quit my job for a while and started working at a wine shop. I started studying, loved it, and became a Certified Sommelier and Certified Specialist of Wine. And I was just like yeah, I think I can do this for real!
我们搬到本弯，我认为这是一个很好的合适。花了一年半的时间才找到了这个位置并将所有位置放在一起，我们于2021年11月开业。
How do you put together your food and drink menu?
因此，我只对其中一半负责 - 我做所有的葡萄酒。在将每种葡萄酒带入之前，我都会品尝每种葡萄酒。
我们有一位了不起的厨师尼克·拉加佐（Nick Ragazzo），他想出了食物菜单。我们试图保持季节性旋转，并经常改变它。
What’s your favorite part of running your own business?
I like that I’m my own boss and that I get to make the decisions on how the day is going to go, how much we take on. I’m not just following what someone else’s dream is.
We also have the most amazing staff—I don’t know how we got so lucky, it’s so hard to find labor in Bend and everywhere right now—but we have the nicest, most dedicated workers we could imagine. We all get along, and it makes it really fun going to work.
经营自己的业务的最大挑战是什么？
Probably the unpredictability of everything. We’ll have the busiest day ever, and the slowest day ever in the same week, without any real rhyme or reason.
同样，一切都使一切都脱颖而出，在可预见的将来是24/7，这是我们注册的目的，但确实令人筋疲力尽。
How does Patriot’s Full Service Payroll help you?
I do all the accounting and payroll myself, and I don’t have a lot of background aside from doing it for film production. So, I was looking for a more time-efficient way to do that, and it was actually my mom who recommended Patriot—she owns a business and uses you. Simple, easy, and user-friendly.
It’s intuitive and really doesn’t take me long. I was worried about all the tip income we deal with and all we had to do with it, but it’s very easy.
When it comes to Flights Wine Bar, what are you most proud of?
在我们开放的时间很短的时间内，我们拥有了一个伟大的普通客户社区和刚刚进来并乐于在那里的人。
我们已经在这么短的时间内建立了它，这就是目标 - 使人们可以团结起来闲逛的地方 - 看到它实现的确是很有意义的。
What words of advice do you have for people hoping to start their own business?
你不能一个人做。我们在餐厅和葡萄酒企业以及小型企业管理局（SBA）方面得到了很多支持。我们与许多不同的人联系，他们真正支持我们并填补了我们知识的差距。
Oh! And don’t plan any trips for the first few years—you won’t be able to leave.
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