While working at New York’s Má Pêche in the early 2010s, one of the more ambitious restaurants in David Chang’s Momofuku empire, sommelier Stacey Gibson’s greatest puzzle was developing wine pairings for tasting menus. “The dishes would be so complex and flavorful, with fish sauce and spice,” she says. “Then it’d be like, Okay, pair it with something.”

Once the ball was finally in her court, she decided to work backward. Wine would lead the menu, she and her husband, chef Joey Gibson, decided when starting their pop-up Parallel in 2016. Only after Stacey had her wine list sorted would Joey begin developing dishes to complement it. Tasting rooms and wineries were a natural fit, and they’ve spent the intervening years pairing moles with pinot and skin-contact gewürztraminer with seafood curry at some of the biggest-name wine producers in the Willamette Valley. This month, the Gibsons opened their own Portland wine bar on Northeast Sandy, using Stacey’s “dream wine list” as a jumping-off point for dishes like dirty rice arancini and seafood cannelloni.

The Gibsons met while working at a restaurant in New York; she was a hostess, he was a pasta cook. Joey, who grew up in Georgia, went to culinary school in Atlanta before making his way to Manhattan. When they moved to Oregon in 2013, Joey took a job at the former Ava Gene’s offshoot Roman Candle, followed by Olympia Provisions' Southeast Portland location. Stacey became the sommelier at Park Avenue Fine Wines, the celebrated wine bar and bottle shop once home to Portland Monthly’s 2018 Chef of the Year, Karl Holl. Joey left restaurant kitchens to become the stay-at-home dad for their now–8 year old daughter, Bea, who oversees Parallel’s kids menu, and the pop-up slowly became the family’s.

Over the last eight years, they’ve popped-up and catered events at Yamhill’s Soléna Estate, the legendary pinot producer Bergström, and tasting standby Penner-Ash. But they’ve always had their eyes on opening their own space. “We love catering, but the level of hospitality we’re looking for—it’s different if it’s your house versus someone else’s house, you know?” Stacey says.

When selecting wines, Stacey favors approachability, but she’s also not going to leave the wine nerds hanging. Oregon makes a big showing on the opening iteration of her dream list, with two local pinot noirs by the glass (Timothy Malone and Stephen Goff), chardonnay from industry darling Kelley Fox, and Division Wine’s Oest, a rosé of Gamay. From afar, there’s French Syrah, Santorini Assyrtiko, and Basque Txakoli—all poured by the glass, as well as an assortment of sherries. Outside of wine: a couple house cocktails with personality—anchovy-washed gin martinis, old fashioneds with the sweet smoke of sfumato amaro—a few beers, and nonalcoholic wine and sodas.

Joey’s food menu includes thoughtful wine bar standards—fun French cheeses, Smoking Goose charcuterie—as well as a few playful snacks, like hush puppies with uni honey butter. The bar's small plates are the real draw: each dish is listed with its suggested wine pairing, which Joey used as inspiration. For instance, Stacey was set on listing Gurrieri Cerasuolo di Vittoria, a Sicilian red blend of Nero d’Avola and Frappato grapes grown in the Biviere and Fegotto districts in Chiaramonte Gulfi. Stacey loved the wine’s tannic structure, the dark, red fruit of the Nero d’Avola balanced and brightened by the Frappato. Joey began researching the wine and the region, and landed on arancini as a pairing, considering the fried rice ball’s Sicilian roots. Considering the measured acidity of the Frappato and the body, spice, and subtle smokiness of the Nero, Joey decided it would pair well with the rich gaminess of his dirty rice (he’s from Georgia, after all). His pairing: dirty rice arancini, filled with Taleggio and finished with collard green pistou.

Other pairings are subtler, or more traditional. They’ve been serving a play on a caesar salad, with Worcestershire-cured egg yolks, for most of the pop-up years. Joey developed it to go with chardonnay, a Willamette Valley hero wine. The oak rounds out the wine’s acidity the same way the cheese and egg yolk rounds out the salad’s fresh lettuce and biting Worcestershire (so the dish mirrors the one instead of contrasting it). “Oregon chardonnay has such balanced oak, it’s nice to have the creaminess of the cheese and the egg yolk,” Stacey says. “It has that same push-pull of freshness and richness.”

Like all dreams, Stacey’s perfect list is a moving target, one that she’ll adjust regularly, with Joey’s food menu fast on her heels. Starting out, everything is savory, but they soon plan to add desserts, leaning on the savory-sweet combination of cheese and pastry. They teased an apple pie with cheddar ice cream or frangipane tarts with pears poached in mulled wine, finished with a snow of shaved aged goat cheese (the latter works well with pinot noir, based on past pop-ups). Eventually, the goal is to serve a full-blown tasting menu, Stacey’s wine list no doubt leading the way.