By Merv Hecht RE-View
FRIENDS TELL ME THAT TO WRITE AN article that‘s going to be widely read, the title has to include either the words “Britney” or “Paris.” Well, this time I’ve got it. Wine bars are as hot as Britney, and my favorite one is in Paris.
What is a wine bar? It’s a place to get together, drink well, and enjoy simple fare. Since my first experience in a wine bar was in Paris in the 1950s, that’s the image that comes to my mind.
For me the quintessential wine bar against all others are compared is L’Ecluse. Located in the Place de la Madeleine in the heart of Paris, it’s in the same square as some of the great food sites of the world. Fouchon, perhaps the most famous food specialty store in the world, is on one corner. A specialty store for caviar, smoked salmon and sturgeon occupies a small space a few doors down. And the Lucas Carton restaurant is just down the street, as well as two or three other great Parisian restaurants of equal renown, but lower prices. And a few doors away is Lavinia, the hottest wine bar in Paris, and the largest wine store in Europe, with an unheard of selection of 3,000 New World wines.
At L’Ecluse the specialty is Bordeaux, and there are usually 20 or 30 for sale by the glass. The bar, with some tables, is in the front, and there is a lovely glass covered patio in the back. The food is simple, and much of it, like the foie gras, is what is customarily served with certain special wines (Loupiac, with the foie gras). So the emphasis is on the wine, and the food is there to accompany it. But in reality the emphasis is on the people: The Parisian wine bar is a place where people come to eat, drink, and above all mingle. Clients come before and after theater, after work, a “stop in” not unlike “Cheers” from the TV show, where the regulars know each other and trade jibes with the owners and bartenders. One might even discuss politics.
Well, we have some similar spots in Los Angeles, but some of the charm has been lost in translation.
Perhaps the best known wine bar in Los Angeles is the AOC. AOC pioneered the idea of “grazing,”where one eats or shares a number of small plates with a large selection of food styles to go with a large selection of wines by the glass. They serve 50 wines available by the glass.
If mingling is your goal, and you don’t care about the noise factor, I recommend Primitivo on Abbot Kinney. It’s close to home, there’s good food, and good wine at reasonable prices and the emphasis is clearly on the wine and the mingling. The place is generally packed with young, beautiful people, and just getting from the front door to the bar is an erotic experience.
And then there’s Rustic Canyon. This is the wine bar I would rate as the closest to the original concept, even though there are still problems. The service is vastly superior to most small restaurants in Santa Monica. The food is excellent and reasonably priced. The mixed Moroccan salad plate, with it’s variety of flavors, can’t be surpassed anywhere. The baked breads and deserts are of superior quality. Most important, the owner, Palisadian Josh Loeb (and sometimes his brother) is right there to greet customers and chat. Even the pastry chef came out to chat and show off some new deserts the last time I was there, and introduced us to her father at the next table. And the last time I had lunch there, with my partner, Chef Alain Giraud, between us we knew and chatted with people at three of the tables.
One wine bar that has avoided a number of these problems is Bodega, near Seventh Street and Broadway in Santa Monica. The space is modern and sleek, with a feeling of open space, and the noise level is low for Los Angeles. The food is minimal, a selection between four pizzas, four sandwiches, two salads and four or five mixed cold plates, and three desserts. But it’s enough for a light dinner. There’s an excellent selection of about a dozen white wines and a dozen red wines, and all the wines are $8 per glass, $20 for a carafe, or $30 for a bottle. That makes life really easy and affordable, plus I love to order by the carafe. For what it is, Bodega is terrific. The only possible negative is that Bodega is not for the serious wine lover, nor gourmand. There are no expensive wines by the glass, and the vintages are not even listed on the wine list.
Culver City is becoming known for its new food and wine bars. While not formally known as a wine bar, I would consider Ford’s Filling Station pretty much of one. The food is typical for a wine bar and there is always a nice selection of wine by the glass. The emphasis on cheese board, ham, salamis and other cured meat tasting plates makes this a wine friendly destination.
Bottlerock, at 3847 Main St. around the corner from Ford’s, is a genuine wine bar. The appearance is high tech, but it looks more like a wine store than a bar. The wine selection is excellent, and the selection and the price range is very broad. While the food is mediocre, the cheese selection is better than most. The lunch menu needs help. Business is booming from the Sony Pictures crowd. The owners, the brothers that own Fireside on Montana in Santa Monica, are rarely there, and have delegated management to various pleasant young folks on site. Good luck with that: The wines are not kept in any saving system, and it’s not uncommon to get a pour from a bottle that’s been opened for two or three days. Fortunately the bar tender usually puts the opening date on the bottle, so you can check for yourself.
A new concept in wine bars is the “serve yourself”“automat” bar. Under this system, you buy a card, and use the card to serve yourself wines from a dispenser. In Culver City, Vinum Populi, operates with this new system, as will a new wine bar in Malibu, near the site where Granita was, which will open soon with this same technology. The idea of “grazing” with wines is interesting, but without good food and some sort of “host” to watch the service and advance the mingling, it’s not really a wine bar.
MERV HECHT, the food and wine critic for the Santa Monica Daily Press, is a wine buyer and consultant to a number of national and international food and wine companies. He
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 3, 2008. Read the original PDF.