Sassafras Springs Vineyard & Winery - Co-owner Cheryl Long and General Manager Drew Gorton

Flavors of Northwest Arkansas

Happy New Year!!! Welcome to 2025, and thanks for listening to our first podcast of the year, we appreciate you being here!

I know that there are folks out there that are kicking off the year with a dry January, and we wish you all the success... However, here at the Flavors of Northwest Arkansas, we toast to the New Year with Sassafras Springs Vineyard and Winery... we’ll talk with them in a minute.

But first- Food News!

Wanted to start with the Yankabilly Smokehouse- the former food truck at the Boardwalk in Springdale is now open inside Mothership on Emma. They’ve been up and going for 3 weeks and co-owner Aaron Kemper told me that they have some big plans for the spring, and it might involve their outdoor stage.

2025 will also be bringing some new restaurants and concepts to our area, and there are plenty that we’re excited about:

We kick it off with the Handshake coming to South College in Fayetteville. It’s one of the 2 concepts coming from the Conifer team this year.. Former Conifer GM Hope Ray is a Fayetteville native and will be at the helm for this one. Just like Conifer, the menu will be gluten-free and have a heavy emphasis on being locally sourced. It will also have a market with locally sourced meat, veggies and more. The building is taking on a significant remodel, so it will take some time.

The other concept from Conifer was announced a month ago, RYN. It’ll be in Bentonville, and will be a farm-to-table tasting menu restaurant in a renovated farmhouse right next to their farm. They also plan to have events on their surrounding land.

Yeyo’s Executive Chef and Owner Rafael Rios got busier in 2024 as he became part-owner in downtown Springdale’s Bauhaus Biergarten... He’ll get even busier this year, as he’ll be opening Casa Magnolia directly across Allen Street from Bauhaus. According to their website, outside of the café, they’ll have a Two Friends Community Book kiosk, art, coffee, clubs, ice cream and more... We’ll let you know when we hear about a grand opening date.

Bentonville Chinese Restaurant Wu Zhao is projected to open later this month. It’ll be owned by Blu Fresh Fish Marketplace’s Barry Furuseth, Vincent Yao Lim, who’s executive chef and known as the Wolf of WOK Street in Australia with millions of social media followers, and former champion of Netflix’s Zumbo’s Just Desserts, Catherine Zhang. We talked with them on November 13th, if you want to hear that episode. They’ll be opening next door to Mezzaluna in downtown Bentonville.

Sadly, yesterday was the final day of service for Mermaids in their current location in Fayetteville. I did receive confirmation yesterday that they’re still targeting April for their opening date at their new location... still no confirmation yet on the location but will let you know once it’s set.

Sassafras Springs Vineyard and Winery is many things... a winery, a wedding venue, a retail space, a restaurant, a place to stay and more, but it certainly didn’t start out that way.

Co-owner Cheryl Long and GM Drew Gorton detail for us the journey to what it is today. They’re mother and son of a family-run business, and that cast continues to grow.

They have some wines that have won impressive awards in some of the biggest competitions in the US. How did they learn to make wine? You’ll hear that story.

Equally as important, how do they bottle it? They started off bottling by hand. It’s been an evolution for sure, and they recently made a huge investment in it.

Finally, we ask all of our guests what their last 24 hours was like- they had a great, albeit frazzling story!

Listen wherever you listen to podcasts!