Cleared for Takeoff: How Flight Deck Brewing Scaled Up with Maine Oven Craft
See Nate share how Flight Deck scaled from one oven to two in their own words.
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When guests walk into Flight Deck Brewing in Brunswick, Maine, they’re greeted by the hum of a working brewery, stainless tanks, brewing vessels, and the rhythm of a space built around community. From the beginning, the team wanted the food experience to feel just as connected and transparent as the beer.
As Managing Partner Nate Wildes puts it, when people walk into Flight Deck, “you see the brewery… and we wanted to take that same brewery experience and apply it as much to our food experience as we could.”
To do that, they needed a kitchen centerpiece — something functional, beautiful, and built with intention. They found it in a handcrafted Maine Oven Craft build.
Scaling the Fire
The original oven at Flight Deck was a Model 120 Copper Allagash, mounted on a short trailer frame — the kind of oven people noticed immediately at festivals or out on the street.
Nate remembers that early impression:
“You saw this beautiful metal dome, and you saw people slinging food in and out. It was as much a piece of art as it was an obvious tool.”
When Flight Deck started serving pizzas in 2020, the Model 120 felt like the right size; plenty of capacity for a young brewery introducing wood-fired food to its community. But as the business grew, so did demand.
“We were a victim of our own success. The oven that we didn’t think we could possibly grow into became way too small for our needs.”
They were regularly pulling off throughput that would strain any kitchen. The oven quickly became the engine behind a fast-paced, high-volume operation, and it needed to get bigger.
The Upgrade: From the 120 to the 180
The question Nate eventually called with was simple:
“Do you have a bigger oven?”
And the answer was yes.
In 2025, Flight Deck installed a Model 180 Copper Allagash on casters, the largest oven Maine Oven Craft builds, designed for serious commercial throughput and maximum visibility in an open kitchen.
For Nate, the upgrade solved several challenges at once:
More pizza capacity
Better workflow
Greater visibility from the tasting room
A smoother user experience for the kitchen team
As he puts it:
“When you size up a tool, especially in the restaurant world, you typically have to give up something. With Maine Oven Craft, we didn’t have to give up anything”
The oven wasn’t just larger — it was more enjoyable to use, and it allowed the team to keep food lead times low even on peak days.
Two Ovens, Two Locations, One Story of Growth
The upgrade created a new opportunity: Flight Deck suddenly had two ovens ready to work.
The original Model 120 Copper Allagash found new life at their second location — a seasonal beer garden at the Maine Maritime Museum in Bath.
Nate reflects on how seamless the shift felt:
“Not only were we able to size up our operation here in Brunswick, but in doing so, it allowed us to take our first oven… and deploy it to our new second location.”
It’s a rare full-circle story: one oven powering a start-up kitchen, then powering a second expansion years later — both still part of a shared lineage.
Craft, Presence, and the Value of Local
Even as Flight Deck scaled, one thing remained consistent: the relationship behind the ovens.
Nate describes the partnership this way:
“When we have questions about improving efficiency or throughput, it’s a phone call away… usually followed up with a FaceTime… sometimes followed up by an in-person visit.”
That responsiveness matters for a business where a single oven anchors the entire food operation. And for Flight Deck, sourcing locally wasn’t just a nice idea, it became a clear business advantage:
“The business value… the value to the underlying bottom line, we found to be greater by sourcing locally.”
The ovens became part of the brewery’s identity — a visible, working piece of handmade craft that reflects the same ethos as their beer.
A Future That Keeps Rising
With a Model 180 powering Brunswick and a Model 120 serving Bath, the Flight Deck team has no intention of slowing down.
Nate laughs when he imagines what comes next:
“We’re just hoping Maine Oven Craft comes up with a yet even bigger oven in a few years.”
Watch Flight Deck Brewing’s journey here.
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