Community Highlights: Meet Angie Cline of Quench Taps and Tapas

Today we’d like to introduce you to Angie Cline.

Hi Angie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story. 
I grew up on a horse farm in Snohomish, WA with my mom, dad, and sister. My mom was an amazing comfort food cook, ya know the kind that has the metal dish on the back of the stove and fills it with bacon grease after breakfast and everything made that day is cooked in that yummy bacon grease, that was how it was done. I had many opportunities to also cook with my great-grandmother who was originally from Iowa, there were countless things I learned from both of them: food pairings, technique. When I was in high school, I was involved in DECA; I loved it, i did all three yrs, including the entrepreneur program. I competed and won in numerous competitions. This is where my dream started; we had to create a virtual business (an 80s virtual business) what we had to work within 1987; my idea was donuts and dreams, a swanky cocktail-inspired bakery by day and bakery-inspired cocktails by night; this concept and plan also won many awards. when I moved to the East Coast after high school  and got a job at. Pizzeria in Caldwell NJ called Tony’s Pizza, Tony and his wife took me under their wing and taught me so much about cooking and customer service. They made everything from scratch and of course, NY-style pizza that was a very popular spot, I worked there for a couple of yrs. I moved back to WA state and got a job in sales , I traveled all over the country for several yrs. doing that, made great money. Back to Washington, where I settled for a bit and had my first daughter. I ended up moving to a few different places while she was young, Texas than Louisiana, always exploring the culinary diversity of all the places I have been. Back to WA again. our house was always the host house for any gathering, party, holiday, etc. I would always love to put on a big spread and experiment with food and pairings; I cooked all the time and raised 2 daughters. At 39 I met my current husband, he also was in sales and traveled a lot, I traveled occasionally with him, again being able to experience food all over the country, the diversity is amazing. We moved to AZ in 2015. I was still in sales with the company I worked for in WA for several yrs., after Covid a lot changed with all companies and travel, and my husband Jeff wanted a change as well, so we decided to take a leap of faith and start our own business as I always wanted to do but didn’t have the capital,  we put all of our savings into my dream of a wine bar, which ended up morphing into Quench Taps and Tapas, my intention when starting was just having a few dishes and wine and beer, i guess my excitement of sharing my culinary creations got the best of me and continues with weekly specials.

I was diagnosed with celiac shortly before starting the wine bar and spent countless hours, days, and months researching and experimenting with different gluten free flours and concepts, also learning the overwhelming consumption of Gluten is unhealthy. I created a Menu where the fresh foods are the stars of the show, showcasing flavors as nature intended. Not using sauces, creams and additives to cover up frozen dishes as most restaurants do. Our food is fresh and natural, I have deliveries atleast twice a weeks of produce and meat, always fresh never frozen. I  successfully created a menu that is completely safe for anyone with celiac to eat any dish. The dishes served with regular baguettes and can get GF upon request, there is a GF bread option for any dish that is served with bread. All GF bread is made in-house by me. We have successfully created a menu that is GF and when people realize it they are shocked it taste so amazing. It is possible to eat healthier without sacrificing flavor. I think in America we have become a slave to fast food and prefabbed frozen food, so much that people have forgotten what food supposed to taste like withour fillers and preservatives. . We are 100% scratch kitchen prepping for hours every day which also means if we run a special of something we may only have it for a few hours or days until we run out. Otherwise, any dish can be safely consumed, including fried foods like our famous ever-changing flavor of wings and flatbreads  I also have several regular menu items that were ran as a special and had overwhelming success and request to be permanent,  another reason our menu continues to grow.

We offer local 7 Az craft beers on tap served from a glycol system which keeps the beer at a refreshing 30° we always have 1 cider on tap and several.choices of GF beer and specialty seasonal beer in the can. We offer over 50 wines by the glass/bottle, and 4 wines on tap. We have seasonal cocktails to add to our repertoire of craft cocktails; right now it’s our pumpkin smash (aka, pumpkin old fashioned) and our ” it’s cold out cider sangria.” A white wine apple cider sangria with caramel dipped rim in cinnamon sugar, coming up a toasted marshmallow old fashioned and 2 other winter/Christmas inspired cocktails TBD. I love to create familiar foods and introduce in a different way, using the freshest ingredients like our deconstructed French dip flatbread complete with a creamy au jus topping. I have a great team of people in the kitchen that are able to help me create and deliver my ideas as I envision them. I love the ability to pair foods and spices that you don’t see every day and open people’s minds and pallets to a world of flavors they would normally not be subjected to. My head chef Mike also creates amazing dishes like our buttered white wine and mushroom bites, it’s one of our best-selling dishes. I truly appreciate my team in both the front and the back of the house to ensure the experience our guest have is the amazing and memorable and keep them returning. I want everyone to have an experience that is like nothing they have experienced on the flavor side and presentation. My idea is that food should look like a work of art, and the first bite is breathtaking in flavor. You know we eat with our eyes and I want people to feel excited to taste along with the visual adventure. We pride ourselves on having a very casual space that’s upscale but comfortable and relaxing with velvet couches and lounge chairs, we expect people to spend hours sitting and eating small sharable plates for hrs. and pair with your favorite beer or cocktail . We want people to connect or reconnect here, no cell phones, no sports, just a nice background of acoustic music or live music on weekends and great conversation. I love to see people chatting with each other not scrolling social media. I try to get out of the kitchen and connect with the guests; we have many guests who return weekly and biweekly and have such a respect for their support. It’s this that keeps me going and the smiles on their faces and that this is their favorite place to come especially if they have a bad day, and this is what makes it better for them.

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There has been nothing smooth about this experience: the construction that delayed us months in opening, the ongoing struggle to get the quality of produce necessary on a weekly basis. It’s a terrible misconception that restaurants have great prices on food from distributors; they do not. Unless you’re using pre-made, frozen foods and even that is more expensive. In general, the fight on a weekly basis for high-quality produce, herbs and microgreens at a reasonable price is a real challenge. I end up weekly going to several stores to find the specialty items I need because the cost and quality from distributor are too high. Staffing has been a huge challenge over the last year. We are lucky to have a few employees who have been with us since Jan, but seems we are always looking. Currently, we have a great team. But as we get busier for the upcoming season, we will need to increase staffing.  Our demand to always be fighting to remain open when we are surrounded by giant corporate restaurants that we struggle to compete with, I always thought food and service would win out, sometimes I feel that means nothing and it’s price and quantity, people want a giant plate of food for what they think is little money. Instead of high quality, fresh food for the same amount of money.

We’ve been impressed with Quench Taps and Tapas, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Our initial idea for Quench was Charcuterie boards and a few small plates. This has all morphed over the last 11 months. Our Charcuterie boards are famous for the selection and content. I love that customers play a guessing game trying to figure out some of the items on the board, like the sweetie drop peppers or the layers of flavors into the cheeses and meats we have that change weekly. Or the weekly changing hummus flavorless we offer with crudite (fresh cut veggies) currently, it’s sweet potato hummus. We put lots of root veggies like rutabaga, turnip, parsnip, rainbow carrots, black radish, but slice very thin and use cookie cutters for different shapes, so it becomes a game to identify the vegetable. Our countless hours perfecting dishes that are gluten free with flavors that are better than dishes with gluten, it is possible to eat GF as they do in moderation many parts of the world and nobody questions it. Food mfg in America are a little behind in creating really good GF options. I use 3 different GF flours for baking and cooking, all produced from European countries and all have a different use, 1 for pastries and general baking, 1 for breads and yeasty recipes and 1 especially for flatbread and foccacia. It takes great care and time to reproduce an amazing GF dish that you cannot tell it’s GF.

Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
We pride ourselves in offering the best experience possible to each and every guest and turning their pallets onto flavors they may never otherwise try. The number of people who have come in saying they hate a certain food and leave with a different mindset because we prepare in a way they enjoy it. I think the quality of the freshness and preparation is why people love things they normally cannot have not from other places.

Contact Info:

• Website: Quenchtaps.com
• Instagram: @quenchtaps