Signature Dish: Sayra's Wine Bar

Welcome to a new Q’Stoner food feature, Signature Dish! Once a week we check in with Queens restaurants and ask the owners about the all-time favorite dishes they serve.

The spot: Sayra’s Wine Bar, 91-11 Rockaway Beach Boulevard, Far Rockaway.

The deal: Sayra’s Wine Bar opened this summer in a space that had been decimated by Hurricane Sandy. The two owners, Rashida Jackson and Patrick Flibotte, are Rockaway Beach residents, who conceived and designed the restaurant. The interior uses reclaimed materials. The restaurant pairs wines with small plates and hosts weekly events such as outdoor movies in the summer and jazz nights.

The dish: Sayra’s Wine Bar relies on recipes passed down from the owners’ families and pairs the dishes with reasonably priced wines. Flibotte’s father shared his recipe for pulled pork sliders and Jackson’s mother donated her recipe for spicy meatballs — see photographs of both dishes after the jump. Both hearty dishes pair well with a Malbec, particularly the bar’s Ernesto Catena ‘Tahuan’ Mendoza, Argentina 2010. The dishes “bring out the notes of black cherry and blackberry in the Malbec,” according to Jackson. Although diners can take the wine recommendations with them when they leave, getting these secret family recipes is off the table.

Pulled pork sliders

Spicy meatballs

Signature Dish coverage [Q’Stoner]