Campanile's Friday Night Flights

With wine bars opening left and right, Campanile has decided it too can be a wine bar one night a week. To that end, owner Mark Peel and wine director Jay Perrin have instituted Friday Night Flights.

And why not? After all, the beloved Cal-Mediterranean spot boasts one of L.A.'s best wine lists, not to mention cheese programs. Campanile was probably the first restaurant in the country to feature the Austrian Grüner Veltliners and Rieslings that have become the darlings of the sommelier set. And since Perrin, late of La Terza, took over as manager and wine buyer, he's been collecting some beguiling wines from all over the world, some little-known and underappreciated.

To showcase them, he came up with the idea of doing not just wine flights but also wine and food pairings on Friday nights, starting at 5:30. It's something to do after work, a little more sophisticated than hoisting beers and gobbling buffalo chicken wings. It's also a great way to wait out the traffic.

Peel says he's having fun thinking up little dishes to accompany the wines. He writes ideas down on a big list, and then on Tuesday afternoon he and Perrin sit down and play, matching this wine against that dish until they have several pairings and groupings that work.

The menu is different each week. It might be "Study of Chardonnay," "Tempranillo and the Like" or "Summer Fling," the last an all-white flight that proposes a Grüner Veltliner with melon and prosciutto and Idiazábal cheese, a Grenache Blanc from Priorat in Spain with gazpacho, and a Moscato Giallo from Trentino in Italy with a summery tomato, mozzarella and basil salad.