vintage wine bar

[mrbigjas]

had a drink with a friend at vintage yesterday after work--what a pleasant place! it's part of the 13th street revival that tony goldman promised us several years ago, and which now seems to be unstoppable.

the space is kind of spare, with exposed brick walls, one of those giant iron wine bottle chandeliers, and wooden wine racks mounted directly on the wall. cork dividers and chalkboard menus complete the feel of the place.

like many wine bars, the list is not extensive, but is obviously carefully chosen. sure, they have a house white zin, a concession to the non-wino that i think is unnecessary in this day and age, but hey, white zin is cheap so why not be friendly? their wines are categorized, as many places are, into flavor and aroma categories, with a 'new and exciting' section in each of red and white, which houses interesting wines like the 2004 ironstone symphony obsession. the symphony grape was a new one on me, a hybrid of muscat of alexandria with grenache gris--the wine is fantastically floral in the nose, and loaded with those kinda orange-y lychee-y creamsicle-y flavors that i associate with wine that have a chunk of residual sugar. not my thing for daily drinking, but it was interesting, and just what my friend was looking for.

speaking of choosing wines, the owner (who i am sure is tired of hearing that she bears a striking resemblance to mena suvari) graciously allowed my friend to taste rieslings of german and californian origins, before she decided on the ironstone.

besides their normal by the glass offerings, which hover in the $7-9 range, vintage offers several different flights per day, priced at $15 each. the nice thing about them is that when she creates them, she is obviously thinking about a progression, and about relating the wines to each other, rather than just 'here are three sauvignons' or something.

for instance yesterday there was a flight of a chardonnay, a viognier, and a chard/viognier mix. there was a flight of pinot noirs, which were a ... damn i can't remember exactly, there was a pinot nero from italy, and a nice california one... anyway i ordered up the italian flight, a dolcetto, a salice salentino and a really tasty chianti classico. very nice job--my only complaint is that like many places their red was served too warm; it wouldn't hurt to have the reds in a fridge of some sort. and the flight pours were a little small for my tastes, but really not excessively so.

besides the wine, they do have a fully stocked bar, with five or six beers on tap and liquor. the menu appears to be kind of a standard wine bar sort of thing--charcuterie plates, burgers, french onion soup. we got the charcuterie plate, which was a nice if small assortment of pate de campagne, sopressata, prosciutto for $14. other dishes are cheaper--there are plenty of snack type plates for under $10.

so yeah, it's a nice place and i'll be back very soon.

[KatieLoeb]

That Symphony is delicious. They used to serve it over at McCormack & Schmick's, or at least that's where I'd had it.

I've been hearing mixed reviews on Vintage. On the one hand I'm thrilled there's a new wine bar in town, but on the other hand I just can't get excited when I see a well meaning couple trying to do everything themselves in an attempt to "save" money. The inevitable doom just depresses me and I don't want to get attached to the place. The one time I stuck my head in there after the opening it looked seriously understaffed. I've heard from other folks that have been there that service is slow. If you don't know enough to pay just one extra warm body bartender or server less than minimum wage + tips to take care of your guests for a 6 hours shift (Grand total cost to payroll about $15), then the chances for success seem dim to me, at best. I really hope this place does well, but if they don't hire some staff soon, it's not going to be pretty. Burning oneself out in their own place of business is a common demise for small business owners as well as small businesses.

[mrbigjas]

when we were there, there was indeed another bartender--we asked him about a certain wine, and he replied that he had just started about an hour before, so maybe they recognized the problem.

i miss a lot of these aspects of things because i tend to like to go drink wine right after work, rather than late-night. so crowds are always thin. for instance i've always gotten a seat with friends, every time i've been to tria, because i never get there after 6.

[Carlson1105]

I was there on Wednesday night, and I loved it. Great atmosphere, 40 or so wines by the glass, very friendly owners. On this night there was another bartender, several servers, and chef and a sous chef. Seems pretty well staffed.

I was impressed with the cork wall which Jason (The Owner) told me was made with over 5000 corks cut in half and glued to a sheet of plexiglass. Lots of exposed brick and a wall made up of wooden wine crates were also nice touches. Looks like they did a lot of work to a building that has been empty for over 10 years. Didn't get a chance to eat, but will definitely be back to do so. I wish them the best.

[Greg Ling]

I've been here a few times after work and have had a great time.

The owners are great but they do pour a little smaller than some places, the food is good (finally a place that is not mexican or japanese!)and I think the price3s are reasonable.

[Andrew Fenton]

We went to Vintage last week and had a disappointing experience. Since it was happy hour, and since we are basically cheapskates, we took advantage of their happy hour special: $4 glasses of the house wines. Unfortunately, the house wines aren’t really worth drinking. The cabernet sauvignon was thin and unremarkable (sorry, I didn’t note any of the wines’ names). One of my dining partners called the pinot grigio “undrinkable” and ordered a glass of the vinho verde, which wasn’t bad. It also wasn’t one of the house wines, which I guess goes to show what’s worth ordering at Vintage.

Honestly, I don’t know if it was fair to be disappointed by the house wines. 4 bones is really cheap, and I wasn’t expecting greatness. But I’d hope that a wine bar would be able to find good, cheap wines for basic drinking.

The food was good, or at least had the potential to be good. I ordered the house burger medium rare, and was impressed to see that it was actually served that way: most places will try to slip you a medium. Smoked bacon and roasted peppers were a nice touch. But it was also cold, as if it had been sitting around for twenty minutes.

Which in fact it probably had: it took a good forty minutes for our food to arrive. And that was just the tip of the giant jutting iceberg of bad service. It took a long time for the waitress to take even our drink orders. Twice, after we ordered a glass of wine, the waitress forgot to bring it, and we had to order again. I’ll grant that she seemed frazzled, but she lost any sympathy she might have gotten from me by carrying a pad and not writing any of our orders down. That’s fine if you can keep it all together, but if you can’t, honey, please honor the memory of your hominid ancestors and remember that you are a tool user. That apron isn't there as a fashion statement!

I figure I’ll try them again in six months or so; at that point they’ll either have worked out their staffing issues or they’ll be out of business. (God, that sounds cold-hearted. Oh well.)

[mrbigjas]

We went to Vintage last week and had a disappointing experience.  Since it was happy hour, and since we are basically cheapskates, we took advantage of their happy hour special: $4 glasses of the house wines.  Unfortunately, the house wines aren’t really worth drinking.  The cabernet sauvignon was thin and unremarkable (sorry, I didn’t note any of the wines’ names).  One of my dining partners called the pinot grigio “undrinkable” and ordered a glass of the vinho verde, which wasn’t bad.  It also wasn’t one of the house wines, which I guess goes to show what’s worth ordering at Vintage. 

why every restaurant in the world doesn't have a vinho verde available for $4 a glass at all times is beyond me.

[MarketStEl]

So far, my one visit to this place--en route home if I return via the El--was for the last Phillyblog happy hour. I only drank and didn't eat. It was somewhere around 8:30 and there was a decent crowd in the place. I think our server botched someone's wine order as well, but the diners among us liked the food.

I don't remember that much about the wine I had. Maybe one of you will have to take me by the hand someday and guide me through all this Masonic-ritual stuff that you call wine tasting.

It looks to me like they have found a clientele, as the place has been at least semi-busy whenever I've walked past it; I guess the patrons must be either forgiving enough to accept the slow service or not in a hurry. One of my upstairs neighbors--the guy whose name is on the Jon Christopher hair salon up the block from me--appears to be a regular.

[Andrew Fenton]

I think our server botched someone's wine order as well...

See, that's what bothered me more than the slow service. (Well, that and the cold food. There's no excuse for that).

I agree that they seem to have a clientele. I'm sure that they also benefit from spillover crowds from El Vez on the corner. (In fact, that's exactly what we did: started at the Wednesday happy hour at El Vez then went to Vintage for dinner.)