Bruce Bussing of Haslett, left, learns about wine from Dusty’s employee Steve Okuly at a wine tasting held Friday at Dusty’s Cellar, 1839 Grand River Ave., in Okemos.
Red wine aficionados and light beer drinkers might not have many things in common, but there is a place where they can go to break bread.
At Dusty’s Cellar, 1839 Grand River Ave., in Okemos, the staff can serve both types of customer by providing an education for the inexperienced wine drinker and expert knowledge for the connoisseur.
Dusty’s began as a bakery inside the Meridian Mall in 1981, when current owner Matt Rhodes said his father tried to recreate the bakery experience the family had while living in England.
“We were ahead of our time,” Rhodes said. “We had a fancy espresso machine and we couldn’t sell (any espresso). When it broke, no one knew how to fix it.”
Despite that, Dusty’s continued to grow and began offering cooking classes. From there, Rhodes said it was a natural progression to become a restaurant. Today, Dusty’s is still committed to bringing its customers all things gourmet.
Each month, Dusty’s holds several wine tastings inside the gourmet food store attached to the restaurant and bar.
It usually features 12 wines from different wine makers as well as six bottles from the sales floor.
Steve Okuly, Dusty’s wine buyer and manager, said the tastings are a great way to learn about “all the things that make wine fun,” sych as the origin and profile of wines and with what foods each blend is best served.
Most of the featured wines score higher than 85 points on a 100-point, industry standard scale, Okuly said. The scale measures attributes of the wine such as aroma, taste, depth of flavor and finish. These featured 85-point bottles of wine sell for $15 or less and make up a large part of Dusty’s array of wines. Okuly said his staff can help navigate for first-timers.
“We hand-sell wines here,” he said. “We’re not like a grocery where you just pick something off the shelf. There’s always someone here to talk to.”
Although Dusty’s stocks its store and bar with the best wines on the market, it strives not to fulfill the stuffy stereotype that surrounds wine culture.
“You can come in on a Friday night and see someone in a tuxedo and someone in jeans sitting next to each other, getting the same service,” said C.J. Davis, the wine bar manager.
Davis said the bistro-style atmosphere of the restaurant and wine bar is more about having fun with food and wine and learning to better understand the combination. He describes Dusty’s staff as “Food Network junkies”, who want to help people appreciate what they have to offer.
Clients who were never properly introduced to wine can belly up to the wine bar and find a new favorite in only a few short minutes by going through what Davis calls a “tasting flight.”
Tasting flights offer customers four different wines from a specific family, such as crisp white wines, rich reds and those with a touch of sweetness.
After choosing the flight they would like to take, customers are served about an ounce of each of the four wines in order from lightest to fullest bodied.
That way, Davis said, the customer will be able to pick up on the subtle differences between each wine.
Even if customers have no idea where to begin, Davis said Dusty’s employees are trained to guide novices through their first flight.
“Sit at the bar and talk to the bartender or any of our servers. Come in and say that you want to learn,” Davis said. “That’s what our servers are trained to do.”
When it comes to wine, Rhodes said it’s all about having fun.
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“Don’t be intimidated,” he said. “Wine is meant to be enjoyed and shared. There’s no wrong or right answer when it comes to wine.”
