I went out to a wine bar tonight. The food portion of the menu consisted of a “cheese plate”. That is it. The selection of wines was not impressive. For a place with a French name, I expected an extensive collection of French wines. Nope. Heavily Mediterranean though. Lots of extracted Argentinian, Chilean & Spanish wines. They even had two PORTS on the menu. But no Australian. Minimal French. So Wine Tasting Guy…what was so “great” about this place?
THE SERVICE! The place was definitely intimate. A nice decor. Some comfortable seating. Good stemware. They served their wines in separate apparatus (not sure whether to call it a decanter or carafe). A cool bar. But what really sold me was the VERY WARM, SWEET bartender. She was incredibly accommodating. I know I can be a pain in the ass at wine bars and the bartender was so patient with me as I tasted wine after wine until I FINALLY found one I liked. (I must have tasted 5-6 wines before finding one I liked.) And she was super gracious about it too.
And then I met the owner. WOW. What a guy. A former professor, this guy was REALLY WARM. Apparently he loved teaching and I bet his students loved him. Such a genuinely warm and nice guy. We talked about getting together to talk about his place. On this night the place was quiet and while I understand that it is profitable, I’d be thrilled to be able to help him transform it into a thriving business.
But the point of this post is that while there were clearly many things that needed to be worked on, this place got one very important thing right. The service. It was really great. Sure it would be nice if he had more food options. But how many people are going there for dinner. And yes, it would have been nice if I had more luck with the wines. But I did find something I liked in the end. GOOD SERVICE. They were just real people who REALLY seemed to want to see the customers have a quality experience.
I wish them all the luck in the world!
Happy PLEASANT wine tasting!
WTG
Tags: Wine bar
dude you are such a social butterfly! and part-time dennis the mennis. always making friends and making trouble everywhere.
Great story, its hard to meet such genuine people in this town.
there are many wine bars in our area and i always visit them coz i love to drink “
wine bars are great. my father installed a wine bar in my home and my wife also loved it :.;