High Five Selections
IF you’ve enjoyed a glass or bottle of wine in Portland, there’s a good chance Dana Frank had a hand in choosing it. Starting in the New Seasons wine department with her husband and business partner Scott Frank, Dana later became a wine director at eclectic establishments like 23Hoyt, Ava Gene’s, Langbaan and Phuket Café (where she still curates the wine list.)
Dana helped open Northeast Portland restaurant Dame. She owned and operated the beloved wine bar Bar Norman for over five years. She worked side by side with Scott and Delicious Wines Distributing and his winery Bow & Arrow, and she continues to organize Portland’s only natural wine fair, The Wild Bunch, each year. Dana and Scott have begun a new wine venture with their recently launched importing company, High Five Selections.
I credit Dana for making wine more exciting and accessible to many Portlanders, particularly younger drinkers, women, queer folks, and others who are traditionally left out of the wine world. She’s de-mystified one of the most stodgy, historically male-dominated spheres of the alcohol industry, all while supporting small-scale farmers who prioritize environmental sustainability and quality wine. Dana views the five years of running Bar Norman on Southeast Clinton Street as one of her favorite career eras thus far. After many years working in food and wine, expert hospitality was her number one priority when opening the bar.
“People want a space that feels really good and lived-in, and where they show up and are welcomed and cared for,” she said. She created a bar that felt like your stylish best friend’s living room – cozy but elevated – and hired a team that reflected that homey, warm energy. Food and beverage industry veteran Ben Bryant joined the Bar Norman team from the beginning and was integral to the hospitality and extensive wine knowledge always found there.
After the pandemic lockdown era, Dana orchestrated a constant stream of events and pop-ups, often set to the tunes of DJ Broken Arrow (Scott Frank) playing records from the bar’s second story.
Running a wine bar in a post-pandemic economy required a range of offerings. Dana was happy to provide a platform for the staff’s visions, like Solera, a monthly wine social for women and other marginalized genders. A pillar of community, she brought together Portland chefs, bakers, and other creatives in the Bar Norman space, like Lupine, Comparta, and Little Brother burgers. Much to the city’s dismay, the bar closed in April 2024.
“There’s an overwhelming sense of gratitude for the opportunity to be able to do something like that,” she continued, “Even though the pandemic had other plans for us, I look back feeling overwhelmingly happy and proud of the work that we did there, and the space that we all contributed to and created.”
With Dana’s new wine venture, one steeped in her history, family, and experience, she gets to share niche Austrian wines with Portland, and far beyond. Scott and Dana started their importing company, High Five Selections, in June of 2023.
Dana has been involved in almost every aspect of the wine industry and has always known that conventional wine (particularly wines mass-produced from regions often over-farmed) wasn’t up her alley. Excited to learn about and consume wine from less represented regions, and prioritize wine that’s farmed organically, often biodynamically, in small-scale, modest operations, Dana was thrilled to join some of Portland’s earliest adopters of the natural wine ethos. She describes that era as more authentic, less commercialized and trendy, with less posturing than present-day natural wine culture.
“It wasn’t ruled by capitalism, it was way more ruled by feeling, sensibility, and authenticity, doing the right thing for the natural environment,” she said.
Some know Austrian wine, but it is generally underappreciated and underrepresented in the United States. Twenty-five percent of Austrian vineyards are certified organic, which is the highest percentage of any country in the world. Those who do drink Austrian wines know varieties like Grüner Veltliner, Riesling, Blaufränkisch, and Zweigelt, primarily from Northern and Eastern Austria. These are all grapes Dana loves, but High Five focuses on varieties from Southern Austria, near the Slovenian border, primarily from Styria.
Styria is situated at the foothills of the Alps, where the cold-air, mountainous terroir meets a warm, humid climate as the Adriatic and Mediterranean seas bring in coastal influence. Grapes are grown on steep hillsides amidst year-round rain, luscious emerald foliage and within fossilized shells, seabed deposit-filled soil.
This endeavor is particularly meaningful for Dana – her grandparents were Viennese citizens who escaped to the United States during Hitler’s regime. Amidst the pandemic, Dana became a dual citizen of Austria, in her family’s honor, alongside her mom, sister, and daughter.
“My grandparents would have never left if it weren’t for the war and if it weren’t for the Nazis, so for me, there was something about taking back something that had been taken from my family,” Dana said. Her family visited wine growers and farmers on vacation in Austria a couple of years ago. They felt that importing their wine was a no-brainer.
Almost exclusively white wine is made in Styria, often of limited quantity, and farmed in ways that Dana described as “heroic.” She and Scott couldn’t build a portfolio with solely Styrian wine, so they pulled in other Austrian growers who are also underrepresented in the U.S. market.
Hospitality remains a “north star” for Dana, informing her interactions with growers, and encouraging her connection to consumers. She’s eager to close the gap from vineyard to glass; to do this, she puts energy into in-person pouring events. “Our job is to tell the story of the wine growers, to share their experiences, to talk about what it’s like to walk in their vineyards and be in their cellars and why they make wines the way they make them.” She continued, “That gets watered down the more people it goes through, so I have the chance to speak directly to consumers.”
Dana and Scott started Austrian Wine Week this year, and plan to host it every fall. They have recurring pop-ups planned throughout the year at various restaurants and bars, and other events as they arise. The Wild Bunch, Portland’s only natural wine festival, occurs yearly in March. High Five will certainly pour and invite some Austrian growers to join them. In the meantime, you can find High Five Selections wines at a variety of restaurants, bars, and wine shops, like Ardor Natural Wines, Division Wines, Coquine, Xiao Ye, OK Omens, and more.
Referencing the wine industry’s struggle as the economy adjusts to a post-pandemic world, Dana said, “Some would say this is the silliest time to start an import project,” she continued, “but for me, I want to do this and I want to do it really, really well, so I’m just all-in on this. I’m so excited about it.” Many Portlanders miss Bar Norman, the bar’s wine club, and Dana herself. She is a true expert at curating a wine list, working with fantastic growers, and delivering warm, well-informed hospitality. I’m all in on High Five, too.
