A solid foundation makes for a delicious meal.
Flight Bar + Grille in Huxley has enjoyed a quick ascent since opening last year, peaking with one of the state's most coveted awards - Iowa's Best Burger, announced Monday.
Matt and Marianne Pacha moved to Huxley six years ago and immediately fell in love with the community, planting roots with a goal to bring their neighbors together. They decided the Ballard school district was the perfect place to raise a family, and now they have a young son and a baby daughter.
The Pachas thought the community needed a gathering place — a neighborhood restaurant where families could go for meals, where friends could get together for a beer, where couples could have a date night.
And where they could serve up some great food, including their Foundation Burger, a juicy bacon cheese-smash burger that benefits the school district’s foundation with $1 donated for each burger sold.
While the Pachas have raised thousands of dollars for the local organization, the burger was destined to earn their restaurant the crown for Iowa’s Best.
Flight’s burger sales have raised more than $3,000 for the Ballard Education Foundation in a little more than a year's time. Foundation Burger orders skyrocketed after being named to the Top 10 list of Iowa's Best Burger in March, breaking a new record by raising more than $700.
The burger is quickly becoming famous for beef lovers across the state. The Foundation Burger is two, juicy smash patties topped with cheddar cheese, thick-cut bacon, caramelized onions, house-made mustard aioli, tomato and lettuce on a toasted brioche bun. It’s served with house-made garlic-dill pickles and pickled red onion.
More:Flight Bar + Grille takes off in Huxley with a focus on from-scratch food and drink recipes
Two smash burgers give Flight's burgers extra flavor
Flight’s executive chef Katie Boughey is the registered dietician who developed the Foundation Burger as well as Flight’s other menu items.
Boughey uses two smash burgers rather than one thicker patty for each of the burgers on the menu, which includes the Foundation Burger.
It’s more work, but she believes the process is worth it.
“It’s fresh, 100% beef hand-rolled into a meatball. We put them on the grill and smash them down with a steak weight,” Boughey told the Ames Tribune in March. “It creates this really great crusts on the burger. It stays nice and juicy as well.”
Having two, thinner burger patties, seared on both sides, doubles the delicious surface area, Boughey said.
The burger features 80% lean, fresh ground beef and is never frozen. The meat is sourced from the neighboring Fareway grocery store.
“We believe they have a really high value in their meat,” Matt Pacha said in March after being named to the Top 10. “We know it’s Midwest sourced and comes from really good farms. And Fareway has been a good partner and a good neighbor.”
Being a good neighbor is one of the most important things to the Pachas, along with offering great food and drinks, as well as an adjacent golf-simulator business.
Flight's name and decor are a nod to local Ballard Bombers
When they decided to open a restaurant in a new development on the north side of Huxley, along Highway 69, Flight's owners wanted to give a nod to the community with a distinctive name. The restaurant's mystique and some of its design and decor is an homage to the Ballard High School Bombers, featuring the B-52 and an aviation theme.
Jet Sliders on the kid's menu are named after the local youth football mascot.
Excitement grew in the community once the Pachas’ project broke ground in 2021.
“We’d go to football games while the restaurant was under construction and people in the crowd would yell out things like, ‘Hey Pachas, when are you going to open? We’re hungry! We’re thirsty!’” Marianne Pacha told the Ames Tribune.
Flight has satisfied the taste buds of customers beyond the local clientele, earning bragging rights Iowa’s Best Burger. The designation comes after a two-phase competition sponsored by the Iowa Cattlemen’s Association and Iowa Beef Industry Council.
The first phase is based on votes from the public. Burger lovers voted online for a month in support of their favorite Iowa burger, submitting nearly 6,500 votes representing more than 500 restaurants.
The 10 restaurants with the most votes are declared the “Top 10.” From there, several anonymous judges visited each of the restaurants, scoring the burger patties based on taste, doneness and presentation.
Flight Bar + Grille is open 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Hours of operation may change seasonally. The restaurant, which also has a patio overlooking the development’s pond, is located at 931 N. U.S. Highway 69.
Ronna Faaborg covers business, education and the arts for the Ames Tribune. Reach her at rlawless@gannett.com.
