‘Inoteca e Liquori Bar (3rd Avenue)

Like its sister locations, ‘Inoteca 3rd Avenue is a warm space with high ceilings and blonde wooden tables, churning out big Italian flavors on small plates. Even on a Monday night it was a boisterous scene, proving the decision to convert idle Bar Milano, was a good one. The wine list offers fewer by-the-glass selections than expected for a wine bar (12-14 red and white), though it is made up for in a vast cocktail menu. The wines offered are thoughtful, with unique selections like Aglianico, an Italian Syrah and the often under-appreciated, Dolcetto.

‘Inoteca is a fun place to go with a few people because you can order many small plates and sample a lot, which is exactly what we did! One of my favorites was an insalata di verdure di radice, a heaping pile of roasted root vegetables (brussel sprouts, squash, carrots) cooked in a grainy mustard with crisp carrot chips on top. Our waiter had dissuaded me from ordering it, but I typically go with my own instinct and it sounded great to me. I could have eaten two bowls of these awesome vegetables.

We also had an assortment of Italian cheese including Robiola, Taleggio, and a goat cheese that the waiter recommended (I took his advice on that one). A panini with layers of spinach, gooey fontina and truffle oil was another favorite. The whole restaurant smelled like truffle oil actually, which I warmly welcome. If you like bruschette, ‘Inoteca offers a variety of spreads in assortments of one, three, or five pieces and we had ricotta, tapenade, pesto and broccoli rabe, though their flavor was eclipsed by other dishes. Aside from salads and antipasto, ‘Inoteca also offers spiedini which are skewers of various meat or seafood. My cousin had huge, fresh scallop spiedini and my sister had some juicy quail spiedini served on a bed of barley.

Though the food was great I did have some issues with the service which felt rushed at times. At one point I had a bite of bread in my hand and my plate was removed from beneath my hand. The waiter disappeared and reemerged a few times throughout the meal and he forgot to bring (or write down?) a tagliatelle we had ordered, though we were amply satisfied without it.

In any case, ‘Inoteca is a great addition to a neighborhood which has been starving for a noteworthy opening.

‘Inoteca e Liquori Bar: 323 3rd Avenue
Cuisine: Italian, Small Plates, Wine Bar
Average Appetizer/Entree Price: $8/$15
Food: Very Good
Service: Poor
Value: Very Good
You Gonna Finish That? Every last bite.

Lelabar (My New Fave Wine Bar)

There are plenty of wine bars in New York, but when I think of a place that excites me, I always come up short. Some are cool but too crowded and small (Terroir), others are narrowly focused like Italian wine bars Bocca di Bacco and Gottino or Spanish wine bar, Bar Carrera. There is a phenomena in New York in which every new wine bar has a theme. It’s good to have focus, it must be difficult to be everything to everyone, but for me it’s limiting. I never start an evening craving exclusively Spanish wine. I’d much prefer a place where I can start the evening with a 2001 Rioja Reserva and end with a Gruner Veltliner. That’s what we found at Lelabar, a romantic West Village nook that I’ll now declare to be my favorite wine bar in New York.

Lelabar is perfectly intimate but large enough to seat about thirty people around its dark-wood oval bar. The wine list spans the globe between the usual suspects like France, Italy, Spain and the U.S. but also includes Israel, Argentina and Austria, for example. There is a handful of wines offered by the glass in each category and if you elect to buy at least 2 glasses of any wine served in bottles, they will sell you by-the-glass. We were told by Andrew, one of the bartenders, that the list changes every few weeks. No wine bar is complete without tempting small plates like Lelabar’s smoky, house-marinated olives in star anise, lemon and bay leaves or crisp fennel salad with black sesame and sea salt. The typical cheese, charcuterie, and pressed sandwiches are offered too. If beer is your thing, they have a nice craft beer menu as well.

Lelabar is not to be missed, but perhaps we’ll keep it our little secret? Prompt seating at such a precious place is something I’m not ready to give up!

Lelabar: 422 Hudson Street (between Leroy and Morton)
Cuisine: Wine Bar, Small Plates
Word to the Wise: Wednesday and Saturday nights they have $1 oyster specials. They close at midnight during the week but are open later on weekends. Recommended for small groups of 2-4 people.

Bar Carrera

My meal at Bar Carrera last Friday is leaving my head spinning. And it’s not due to the 3 glasses of Spanish wine I had (a Verdejo, an Esmeralda blend of Gewurztraminer/Moscato and a Monastrell), it’s because I have few positive words to say about it, while everyone else on the internet seems to have many. I read so many great things on NY Mag, Yelp, Urbanspoon and other blogs about this little slice of a Spanish wine bar yet my experience was so different.

They seemed desperate for help that night with 1 bartender, 1 busboy, 1 chef, and 1 waiter/hostess in a bustling restaurant filled with about 20 tables of people. Aside from that, the people there were pretty inept. The bartender seemed confused about the Basque wines. I’d heard stories about “Stefan” a waiter there who was amiable, who introduced himself and suggested dishes and wines. If we had Stefan, he was far too swamped to spark up a conversation with us.

We asked for water and were given 1 communal glass between three people because they had run out of water glasses. This is strange of course, but bearable were it ever remedied, or if our communal glass was refilled. Neither of these things happened. Empty wine glasses lingered on the table as did plates, forcing them to be abruptly cleared when new food arrived.

The tapas are served pintxos style which typically refers to a slice of bread with a spread of some kind on it. The pintxos are smaller than regular tapas, though priced as such at about $6 per plate. They were once just $3.50 according to the prices listed on NY Mag and once we saw the portions, I can understand why. Even $6 was robbery for these portions. The best dish of the evening was the smoked salmon on brioche with caviar and a drizzle of honey, though I wasn’t as moved by it as my friend Feisty Foodie. The brioche was bland though the combination of salty sweetness between the salmon and honey was nice. The other dishes were forgettable including a mushroom and morcilla sausage on a tiny skewer and some garlic shrimp which came about half an hour after everything else. Our waiter explained that they had run out of shrimp and had to go next door to get some more. I’m not kidding.

I won’t go back to Bar Carrera but I do wonder, what happened here?

Bar Carrera: 175 2nd Ave @ 11th
Cuisine: Tapas
Average Price: About 6-$10 per tapas
Food: Good
Service: Poor
Value: Good
You Gonna Finish That? Not even worth a doggy bag.

Ayza Wine and Chocolate Bar

It’s undecided whether it was the inflated prices, laughably meager portions, or horrific service that made dinner on a beautiful Saturday evening at Ayza Wine and Chocolate Bar worse. After reading about Ayza in a NY Times round up of wine bars in Manhattan I wondered to myself… “Why haven’t I heard of it?” Strange. The article discussed the flood of average, uninteresting wine bars in the city. I should have known. Nevertheless, I rounded up some friends to try it out with me, after looking at beautiful photos of the space and food online. Maybe it was a hidden gem?

Well, of course it wasn’t. The beautiful outdoor seating I saw on the web site is mainly directly underneath a vent from the kitchen which spews hot, food-smelling air onto the helpless diners. Our waitress was a disaster. After perusing the menu I asked if she preferred the Gruner Veltliner (Graf Hardegg’s 2006) or the Albarino (Morgadio Rias Baizas 2005). I wanted something crisp to kick off the evening. She nervously offered to ask the bartender. That’s fine for a regular restaurant, I don’t expect the waitresses to know every bottle. But if you’re a wine bar, you best train people so that they know the menu. I opted for the Albarino of my own accord.

After she opened and poured our first glasses, it seemed we were on our own to pour the rest. Long spaces of time would occur with no wine in our glass, she’d pass by, and no refill. We repeatedly took the bottle ourselves to pour, as other waitstaff walked by without noticing the mishap. We ordered a cheese plate ($18) which arrived no less than an hour later and consisted of 5 tiny slivers of cheese separated by 5 olives and no bread. I wish I had taken a picture of this thing! All we could do was laugh. Was I on boiling point again? A hummus appetizer was similar, a tiny ramekin of spread with 4 tiny pita toasts.

The manager came to our table and asked how things were going. I was frank, and explained the issues. He apologized disingenuously, then defended her saying she was under the impression that we were waiting for our entire party to arrive to bring the cheese. (A couple of friends were late) Had this been true, I would have acquiesced, but I had asked the waitress on two occasions if the cheese plate was ready. Obviously holding off on it was not our intention.

He made up for it by bringing some additional cheese and bread and doting on us when we ordered our second bottle, the Gruner, which was delicious. I still got the feeling that he didn’t get the problem though, and was merely placating me. Oh well. That will surely be my last visit to Ayza Wine and Chocolate Bar (cheesy concept anyway).

Following our dinner, I Googled Ayza and remembered I had heard of it, it was featured in one of Eater’s beloved “Adventures in Shilling” columns, in which they point out restaurants that deceitfully advertise themselves on restaurant review web sites like Chowhound and Yelp, disguised as regular consumers. No wonder.

Ayza Wine and Chocolate Bar: 11 West 31st Street
Cuisine: Wine Bar, Mediteranean
Average Entree Price: $15-$21
Service: Poor
Food: Good
Value: Poor
You Gonna Finish That? Not even worth a doggy bag.

Terroir Wine Bar

For a city with a lot of everything, Manhattan falls surprisingly short in the wine bar department. So I was thrilled to hear that Marco Canora and Paul Grieco (owners of Hearth and Insieme) were opening Terroir: a casual, East Village wine bar. The focus is wines that “sing a sense of place”, as Grieco says. He has even suggested that the summertime menu will exclusively feature Mosel Rieslings. Regardless of how it manifests itself, it sounds like there’s a clear passion behind the venture.

Terroir is tiny at 500 sq feet, so prepare to get cozy. It consists of a communal table that seats around 20 and a small bar top with space for a few more. It’s almost too cozy with barely enough room to squeeze past other diners to find a seat along the wall. Claustrophobics need not apply. There is a kind of casual warmth to the environment though which makes it worthwhile.

I love Terroir’s avante-garde approach with wine lists akin to middle school trapper keeper notebooks. Words like “macerate” were scribbled graffiti-style on the face of each one. Though I doubt anybody was there to read, the list also contains quirky explanations, a la Hearth. Our waitress was bubbly and attentive. Friends and I shared a bottle of Prosecco followed by a Cabernet Franc Le Breton, Schneider Vineyards 2005 from North Fork, Long Island. The wines on the list are about as atypical as their presentation. Instead of standby regions like Napa Valley and Tuscany, you’ll see regions like the Loire Valley and parts of Austria well-represented. The sense of terroir, is what connects all of them.

The menu features plates of cured meat and cheese, along with bruschetta, salads, and larger main courses. A calamari salad with chick peas delivered elegant smokiness, dotted with parsley and lemon for a refreshing bite. A bruschetta slathered in tomato with a cracked egg and a duck ham panini with hen of the woods mushrooms both packed extreme flavors. The rumored “balls” section was left out, to my chagrin.

Though Terroir was expected to feature bottles in all price ranges, there was nary a bottle of red for under $40. I had some issue with this, though I generally had a lovely evening. Terroir is a welcome newcomer to the thirsty Manhattan wine bar scene.

Terroir: 413 East 12th Street @1st
Cuisine: Wine Bar/ Italian
Average Entree Price: $14

Bocca di Bacco

This newby Italian wine bar in Hell’s Kitchen had both hits and misses with OK food and struggling service. I wanted to love Bocca di Bacco with its vast menu of wines by the glass and a long elegant bar at the front with an impressive Enomatic system. At Bocca di Bacco one can order a $28 glass of Brunello or a $7 glass of Tocai Friulano, the country’s many wine regions are well-represented. On our first visit we sat at the bar, sampled some decadent cheeses (the names of which I forget) and a couple of glasses. We left very pleased and eager to return for a complete dinner.

Bocca di Bacco began to miss the mark on our second visit. Our waitress was inconsistent, disappearing for long periods of time, and returning confused, unaware of what course we were on or what we might need. A gooey wild mushroom funghi bruschetta with melted cheese on top and (I think?) truffle oil was rich and earthy though a scallop entree that we shared as an app tasted far too much like the sea to be fresh. Pastas like gnocchi in osso bucco sauce and a Bolognese were passable though textures were often over-cooked and under-seasoned.

Bocca di Bacco is owned by the same proprietors as Roberto Passon, a wildly successful neighborhood joint nearby. Unfortunately it seems like a lot of the talent was lost in the transfer. If you want a nice glass of vino and a cheese plate, go to Bocca di Bacco, but eat dinner elsewhere.

Bocca di Bacco: 828 Ninth Avenue @54th Street
Cuisine: Italian
Average Entree Price: $15-$20
Food: Good
Service: Poor
Value: Very Good
You Gonna Finish That? Meh,  you can taste the side.

Peasant Wine Bar

I stopped in at Peasant Wine Bar, the subterranean space underneath the restaurant of the same name, on Friday night. I really dig the vibe at Peasant- dark and sexy, with stone floors, ceilings, and walls. The low wooden tables are communal and adorned with tall candlesticks, heaping bowls of olives, and breadsticks. Service was friendly though our waitress had her moments of being missing-in-action. This meal had no agenda, so weren’tt bothered. The small and simple menu offers up appetizer plates such as bocconcini wrapped in speck, prosciutto with melon as well as full portions of pizza, pasta and steak/seafood entrees. We ordered a richer rose which I’m unfortunately forgetting the name of. It was a great complement to the variety of food we were about to have. My friend and I shared the meat and cheese platter which arrived with a generous portion of proscuitto, bologna, salami, and speck as well as aged parmesan, aged goat, and a rich blue cheese. Following the platter she had the spicy baby octopus with chillis and I had the tripe marinara with Parmesan. Both were good, not great. Her octopus was overpowered by the chilli, seemed like an odd combination. All in all, come to Peasant for a unique space but don’t expect to be wowed by the food.

Peasant Wine Bar: 194 Elizabeth Street
Cuisine: Italian
Food: Good
Service: Good
Value: Good
You Gonna Finish That? Meh, you can taste the side.

Casellula Cheese and Wine Cafe

Casellula is the brain child of proprietors Joe Farrell and Brian Keyser who had one simple goal: allow people to enjoy artisanal cheeses, wines and freshly prepared small plates in a casual environment. After working in some of the top kitchens all over the world, they decided to break away from the stuffy mold (no pun intended) to start a cafe built on passion rather than attitude. Casellula is brand spanking new- having just opened this May- but is already filling its tiny walls with the cheese heads of the city. After reading Casellula’s site complete with a “spread the curd” blog and bios of the wacky people involved, I knew I was in for a special experience.

Casellula is very quaint and rustic with a handful of tables, a dark wood bar and a tempting cheese case. Smells of grilled cheese and smoked bacon from the open air kitchen travel freely throughout the room. My one complaint about the atmosphere is the acoustics are very poor. On a Tuesday night at 7PM the place was full and we were yelling to hear each other- a cramp in Casellula’s style. Our waitress Perri was more than willing to help us select cheeses from the selection of 35 frequently changing options. The list is grouped by characteristics: Fresh, Bloomy, Pressed, Washed, Blue and Flights. We ordered five cheeses for the table to share- an ashy aged goat, a smoked gouda, a mild camembert, a Cayuga blue and a podda classico. The cheeses were accompanied by condiments such as pesto, pickled ramps, and figs to marry with each. With Perri’s help, we ended up with a great variety.

The wine list left a bit to be desired- too brief for a cafe that calls itself a wine and cheese cafe in my opinion and overpriced. They did have some very exotic offerings from Hungary and Macedonia but I would have appreciated some more modest options as well. I am hoping they will expand on the wine in the future.

Following the cheeses we had a mac and cheese with fol epi, comte, chevre, lardons and caramelized onions to share for the table. This was mind blowingly delicious- by far the best mac and cheese I have ever had. The trio of cheeses were perfectly creamy and sharp and the caramelized onions added a unique honeyed sweetness to the mac. Entrees around the table were: pig’s ass sandwich with ham, cheddar, fol epi, pickles and chipotle aioli; fig flatbread with proscuitto, pecorino and micro greens; wild mushroom flatbread with laura chenel chevre and herb salad; and rogue creamery smokey blue flatbread with applewood smoked bacon and hard cider apples. The sandwiches came in overflowing piles of melty goodness with greens on the side. Though mere sandwiches from meets the eye, the attention to detail on every dish did not go unnoticed. The bacon on my smokey blue flatbread had the most intense smokiness and I loved the contrast of the sweet cider apples with the other flavors. Absolutely sublime.

I will be running back to Casellula as fast as my feet can take me and I recommend that you do the same. Added bonus: they offer a Monday night summer series of cheese classes for continuing education. Who’s comin with me ?

Casellula: 401 W 52^nd and 9^th Ave
Cuisine: Wine and Cheese, Small Plates
Average App/Entree Price: $6/$12
Food: Very Good
Service: Very Good
Value: Very Good
You Gonna Finish That? Every last bite.