Eat Here Now: FLX Wienery
Photos and story by Annemarie Morse
Recently, I took a day trip to explore some wineries on the lower west side of Seneca Lake. My favorite way to experience our beautiful wine region is to pick one-to-three wineries and find a place to eat nearby. In between tasting some really great wines at Shaw Vineyard, Villa Bellangelo and Hermann J. Wiemer Vineyard, I stopped at FLX Wienery. It doesn’t look like much from the outside, but it is truly worth a visit! As you come in, you enter into a bright, casual setting with wide plank wooden floors and picnic tables. On the wall you will find eclectic distressed wood frames containing the menu items.
The owners, Christopher Bates and his wife, Isabel Bogadtke, opened up this place in May 2014. It is situated on Route 14 in Dundee along the “golden mile” of wineries. They wanted to create a fun and casual place, where everyone, including winemakers, farmers, families and tourists, can gather and enjoy fresh, great quality food and hospitality at reasonable prices.
The menu contains locally made hot dogs, house-made sausages and fresh-ground burgers of beef, chicken, and black beans. The poutine–French fries with gravy, cheese curds and herbs–is delicious. I couldn’t try everything on the menu, but with the help of a few friends, I tasted the Bratwurst and Chorizo sausages, which were really tasty. There is a plethora of toppings, including condiments such as two house-made mustards, kimchi, Korean BBQ sauce, cilantro, corn relish, miso and chipotle mayos, and smoked ketchup, along with quality American staples, some of which are house-made. They had delicious Lake salt chips, homemade and fresh thick cut. The white hot dogs come from Rochester and the meats all come from Shirk Meats, a local butcher. Some of the offerings on the menu were more surprising, for example the Foie Gras, currywurst and pommes. I can’t wait to go back and try something I didn’t get to try last time.
There is a selection of wines to choose from in wine refrigerators and you can also bring your own bottle. The customers and the employees were warm and welcoming and as I enjoyed my meal, local winemakers came in for lunch and discussed how things were progressing in the winecellars. Here, you feel a sense of community and a future icon establishment in the Finger Lakes region that’s evolving into a wine lover’s destination location.
5090 Route 14, Dundee, 607.243.7100, flxwienery.com
Open Thursday through Monday 11:30 am ’till 6:30 ish
Annemarie Morse is a certified wine judge and chair of the Finger Lakes Chapter of the American Wine Society. She holds an MPS in Enology from Cornell University and is an international wine judge, wine writer, consultant and educator.
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