Meet the man who plans to stock Oak Park restaurant with 7,000 bottles of wine
When Oak Park, the restaurant under construction at Ingersoll Avenue at 39th Street, opens this fall in Des Moines, wine will hold a special place in the hearts of the staff.
The goal is to showcase 7,000 bottles of wine to pair with the new American food on the menu. Already, the leadership team made it a priority to pass the introductory sommelier course, a two-day training and test, this winter.
Now Oak Park has a leader to curate that list. Sam Tuttle, who grew up in Des Moines and graduated from Roosevelt High School, returns to become the wine program director at Oak Park. The certified sommelier plans to open with 500 wine labels in the cellar, growing to 1,000 within the first year.
“My grandma was slowing down a little bit, and I always knew that if anything happened with her health, I would come back,” said Tuttle, who handled wine programs in Colorado and Chicago over the years.
Once he returned to Des Moines last year, he worked at 503 Cocktail Lab & Tasting Room in the East Village and small plates specialist RōCA on Court Avenue, helping with their wine lists, but was ready to depart Des Moines for a new adventure when Oak Park came calling.
More:Get to know Oak Park, the new American restaurant opening on Ingersoll Avenue in 2023
How Sam Tuttle gained his impressive wine background
He recalls a conversation with Joe Tripp, the chef and owner of Harbinger and Little Brother, when they both lived in the Denver area: “I always had this idea that I would love to go back to Des Moines and bring what I’ve learned.”
To create the largest wine program in the state, Tuttle plans to lean into his impressive background that started while he was bartending at the Sonnenalp Resort in Vail, Colorado. There he discovered the world of wine.
Tuttle went on to work at Frasca Hospitality Group in Boulder with its 11 James Beard Foundation awards — what are considered by many to be the most prestigious awards in American hospitality — for food, wine and hospitality. He became a certified sommelier there before moving to Chicago in 2015.
He worked at Alinea, the dazzling three Michelin-starred modern cuisine restaurant from Nick Kokonas and Grant Achatz in Lincoln Park, as well as Next, where Achatz changes the cuisine seasonally near the West Loop.
Tuttle went on to become the restaurant beverage director at Eataly, the massive Italian food hall, where he served as head sommelier at the restaurants and worked with the $20 million wine program, teaching the staff of 500 the finer points of grapes of the world.
Then he returned to the Frasca Hospitality Group to help open Tavernetta, the Italian restaurant in Denver’s Union Square neighborhood, followed by a stint as the sommelier at Flagstaff House, the Boulder restaurant with a 16,000-bottle cellar.
More:The 15 biggest restaurant and bar openings of 2023 in Des Moines, from Oak Park to Barbarian
Can Des Moines become known as a wine town?
Tuttle calls Des Moines a “drinking town” and thinks he can turn the city into a wine town.
“We’re good at it. It’s just the exposure that I think has been kind of lacking,” he said. “We certainly are no strangers to higher end beer, higher end liquor. We have people who spend $1,000 on a bottle of bourbon but are skeptical to buy a $20 glass of wine.”
Oak Park certainly could change that perception. It could be the biggest restaurant opening of the year in the Des Moines metro.
Damon Murphy, who spent 16 years at 801 Chophouse as the general manager, came on board as the GM at Oak Park, while chef Ian Robertson, who left 801 Chophouse in 2017 to work at restaurants in New York and Chicago such as ABC Kitchen, Daisies and Deer Path Inn, takes on the executive chef role at Oak Park.
The design of the space is meant to evoke memories of the Prairie style of architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
More:The 8 hottest new restaurants in Des Moines, January 2023 edition
How Tuttle plans to build Oak Park's wine list
Now Tuttle comes on board to elevate the wine program to meet the quality of the cuisine, hospitality and decor Oak Park plans to showcase. Already he is working on his relationships with wine vendors who sell in Iowa. He’s using his background to choose great vintages and exceptional vintners. He’s working with wineries who aren’t in Iowa to convince them to distribute here. The restaurant is on its way to obtaining its liquor license, marking one of many hurdles on the way to a fall opening.
“It’s such an ambitious project, and thankfully at this point in my career, I’m less about the whimsy of wine and more about the business of wine,” Tuttle said.
He plans to make wine accessible to all, creating a suggested wine pairings list denoting good, better and best for the chef's tasting experience at Oak Park. The idea is to tailor the chef's tasting experience to a customer's budget while also giving them a chance to explore new wines.
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While he slowly starts to build the Oak Park collection, he’s also offering free monthly educational wine tastings for anyone in the hospitality industry who wants to learn more and collaborate with peers, another effort to build the region’s knowledge of wine.
Looking forward to the opening, Oak Park plans to have at least five team members who have passed their introductory sommelier or certified sommelier courses. “I feel like our wine team to some degree could be five- or six-people deep to help me maintain what’s going on,” he said.
“When we’re opening, that night, as they cut the ... ribbon, I’m going to be stuffing bottles into the cellar. I guarantee it. It will be a continuous process that will require a lot of work,” he said, acknowledging the huge task in front of him.
“It’s something that will take a small army as it is going to be one of the most ambitious things in the Midwest as far as openings go.”
More:Intricate plates from chef Jacob Demars come to Barbarian, opening in Waukee in January
Three wines Sam Tuttle wants on the Oak Park menu
Tuttle has the world of wines to chase, searching for the perfect mix for the menu at Oak Park in his quest toward 7,000 bottles. “...our collection will represent every notable region of quality from the very beginning,” he said in a statement.
Here, a look at three of the wines he's chasing for the Oak Park menu.
Jean-Louis Chave — My favorite producer on the planet. This 16th-generation Northern Rhone estate is the benchmark for complexity in reds and whites. I can remember exactly where I was every time I was fortunate enough to try his wines. It's a life goal to share these wines with my fellow Iowans.
Didier Dagueneau — The spirit of the late Didier lives in these insanely complex wines from Pouilly Fume in the Loire Valley in France. The wines of Dagueneau are intellectual. Every sip and smell offers something new.
Valdicava Brunello di Montalcino — The wines of Valdicava are an experience. There are some wines that are just so pleasing on the nose that I won't sip them for hours, just smell the glass and smile. That happens every time I have this wine. The purest most powerful expressions of the Sangiovese can be found in every bottle.
Susan Stapleton is the entertainment editor at The Des Moines Register. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, or drop her a line at sstapleton@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Oak Park hires Sam Tuttle to manage the 7,000-bottle wine list