Flyover

About

A cozy dual-concept in Columbia, MO featuring wood-fired Midwestern specialties and speakeasy-style cocktails

Story

Columbia locals Adam Wells-Morgan and Dan Dethrow are opening a restaurant that celebrates the region of the country they are proud to call home. 'FlyOver' is their tongue-in-cheek name, picked specifically to show that the Midwest has much to offer the culinary world. Their food centers around a wood fire stone oven from which they will serve regional ingredients such as duck, pork, chicken, and seasonal vegetables. The bar showcases Midwest beers, wines, and liquor with cocktails that use infusions, syrups, and ingredients also indigenous to the region.

Especially important to Adam and Dan is that their restaurant balances highly executed food and drink with down-home comfort. They want their guests to feel at ease as soon as they set foot inside the doors, and so they have chosen to keep the dining room simple with wooden decor, earthy color tones, and scented with the pleasant aromas of pecan and apple wood from their oven. Instead of laying the menu out with appetizers and entrees all items are meant to be shared among friends and family. The food has been meticulously crafted by Chef Adam Wells-Morgan and masterfully cooked in Columbia's only wood fire oven. The restaurant's specialty cocktails, beer, and wine have also been thoughtfully chosen to accompany the seasons. The menu is highly executed but their atmosphere is casual, comfortable, and friendly. The social aspect of restaurants and bars is what Wells-Morgan and Dethrow value most. They designed the kitchen and wood oven to be as open as the bar so that their guests can visit with the cooks just as much as they do the bartenders and servers. They aim to know all regulars be name, and to cultivate a space that imbues a sense of community.

FlyOver is a restaurant long in the making for Wells-Morgan and Dethrow, who each grew up in the restaurant and bar industry. Wells-Morgan worked at Columbia's heralded Trattoria Strada Nova at the age of seventeen, and within two years became the head cook at that restaurant's sister breakfast restaurant, Cucina Sorella. He then attended the Culinary Institute of America in New York and became a professionally trained chef. He sharpened his skills at Lidia's of Kansas City and Babbo in New York then moved back to his hometown of Columbia to work as the head chef at 'Village Wine & Cheese' and to later help establish the country club, 'Old Hawthorne.' Dethrow is the son of former 'Booches' owner, Jerry Dethrow. He came of age in that notorious Missouri landmark: plopped by the window near stacks of hamburger buns as a toddler while his father worked the grill, earned an allowance at the age of thirteen by helping to clean on Sundays, and finally working as a server while in college. At the age of twenty, he travelled to England and landed a job as a bartender in a cocktail jazz club. Upon returning to Columbia in his mid-twenties, he joined his friend Wells-Morgan at 'Village Wine & Cheese' to work as their head bartender. He has since slung cocktails at 'Zoobie's' in Lansing, Michigan, and at 'Tellers' in Columbia.

In the summer of 2014, Wells-Morgan and Dethrow built a bar and lounge in Wells-Morgan's garage, just for fun at first... And then their side project expanded into a space for them to practice with dishes and drinks they wanted to see on menus. Before long, they ordered a small, wood fire oven to practice with and by early 2015, they had created a full-on test space where the concepts and ideas for their own restaurant began to take shape.

And now they are ready to showcase their creations and to represent all that they love about the region they call home!