There are few combinations of words that offer more false hope than the phrase “wine bar.” Maybe “fat free” or “no money down,” but that’s a column written by someone else. Wine bars should be the kind of place that I adore, and yet almost universally they fail in a few key ways. Since I’m such a generous guy, I’ll offer a bit of advice for those who currently own or plan to open a wine bar.
Be Bold, Not Boring. I understand that wine bars want to appeal to as wide an audience as possible, but if you’re billing yourself as a wine-focused establishment, make the wine the focus. Not that you can’t offer quality beer or spirits options, but I can think of a few wine bars that seem more interested in promoting those drinks than the wine they ostensibly exist to serve. This extends to the wine list itself: it’s fine to have a few classic offerings, but many people (not just wine nerds like me) enjoy the chance to expand their horizons. Part of the challenge is having a staff in place that can help someone navigate a list that’s not solely made up of Cabs and Chardonnays.
Size Your Guests Up: Standard glass pours are unnecessarily confining—don’t stick to them. Your guests will appreciate chances to explore and experiment, and formats that encourage and allow that are beneficial. Smaller pours allow for sampling lots of different wines, while larger sizes encourage sharing between friends. They also facilitate conversation and conviviality, helping to create a livelier dynamic.
Spread Out Your Prices. For the most part, glass-pour wine tends to fall into a rather narrow range: $7-15, generally speaking. I certainly understand the bottom end of that range, but I wish more wine bars would offer higher-end glass pours. I’m not exactly talking about Chateau Latour, but I tend to think that there’s more of a market for $20-$30 glass pour options than most wine bars seem to think. There are of course risks: storing and preserving those wines becomes imperative, and controlling pour sizes is also a concern, yet it would be another chance for an ambitious wine bar to set themselves apart. After all, many great wines will never be available by the glass if we limit ourselves to that very tight range of prices.
Have A Story To Tell. The world of wine is huge, and trying to embrace it all on one list is a fool’s errand. Some of the best wine bars I’ve been to have a very specific focus, and the entire program is built around that focal point. We live in an area rich with wine, and using the Northwest as a lens to explore the broader realm is a viable and vibrant idea. Yet just throwing wines onto a list willy-nilly fails to ground and contextualize them.
Wine bars can be an amazing place to explore and enjoy. I’ve been to those bars, and they’re sadly a rare treat. Yet most of the establishments masquerading as wine bars are bars or restaurants trying to pretend they’re something they’re not. Yet with a few simple tweaks, they could easily be better able to live up to the promise.
