Wine & Spirits - October 2016 - 8

FINED& filtered American Hybrid When the Wine Shop Meets the Wine Bar by Megan Krigbaum In the midst of pursuing his PhD in English at UC-Berkeley, Bradford Taylor decided to open a wine hangout in Oakland. His interest in wine first took off while he was living in Paris. There, he spent many nights at Le Verre Vole, a wine bar that's become a mecca for people interested in natural wines. The construct was simple: a few wines by the glass, a small food menu and floor-to-ceiling bottles that you could take with you or drink there for a small corkage fee. The prices were hand-written right on the bottle in white marker-a Parisian wine bar staple. "It was an easy, casual and gripping way to interact with a lot of different wines," says Taylor. When he opened his own place a few years back, that's the vibe he wanted to emulate. Mark Nevin and April Sack "I'd go into a record store and think I knew what I wanted, then I'd get engaged in conversation and turned on to something else. I always thought that a really good wine shop should be like that." -Mark Nevin, Tofino Wines 8 At Ordinaire, there's no bottle list at the bar, only a small chalkboard offering a handful of wines by the glass along with some cheese, charcuterie and sardines; if you want a bottle, you can browse the shelves or chat up whoever is working for a recommendation. When you sit down to drink your bottle, you'll pay far less than restaurant prices. Instead of adding a typical restaurant markup, Ordinaire charges a flat $10 corkage fee. "It's the same amount of work to open and put glasses down for any bottle," says Taylor. A bottle of Simon Bize Savigny-Lès-Beaune goes for $102 to take home, or $112 to drink in-house. Many states prohibit the sale of wine for both on- and offsite consumption. But in California it's allowed (though often involves a complex combination of licenses), and over the past few years, hybrid wine bar-retail shops have opened from the Bay Area to Los Angeles. Oakland has been a particular hotspot, perhaps because of its combination of relatively affordable rent and a curious yet laidback wine culture. In the past three years, Ordinaire, Bay Grape and most recently The Punchdown opened in about a one-mile radius downtown. Across the Bay in San Francisco, Mark Nevin and April Sack's Tofino Wines differs from Ordinaire more in aesthetics than in the underlying business model. Their spot inhabits an impressively large, sunlit space in San Francisco's Laurel Heights neighborhood. Because the footprint of their shop is so large, they chose to open with a more traditional wine bar setup: a printed wine list, tailored food menu and a large by-the-glass selection. But the opportunity to browse before you drink is still there. "I grew up going to record stores and hanging out," says Nevin. "I'd go in and think I knew what WINE & SPIRITS OCTOBER 2016 I wanted, but then I'd get engaged in conversation and turned on to something else. I always thought that a really good wine shop should be like that." California is not the only state where these hybrids have taken off; for example, in Detroit, MotorCity Wine functions as both a wine bar and wine shop, with a following that flocks to its patio in the summer time. Bacchanal Wine in New Orleans is more of a permanent backyard party: you buy the wine inside the shop, then head out back for glasses, ice buckets, braised pork shoulder and live music. The next wave of these hybrids has manifested in places like Maine & Loire in Portland, Maine, and Esters in Santa Monica, California, where impressive retail wine selections are met by thoughtful, chef-driven food menus. One might wonder why the line between retail and wine bar hasn't been blurred sooner. For one, the legal hurdles are mighty. In San Francisco, Nevin and Sack pulled two separate licenses and had to lobby the San Francisco Police Department before they were allowed to open their doors. David ArminParcells of MotorCity says that attaining both the onand off-premise licenses required for a hybrid simply isn't possible in Detroit anymore. He adds that the profit margin for a straight-up wine bar is much higher than retail, which means that owners have to really want the retail element to endure, jumping through all of the logistical hoops. For Bradford Taylor at Ordinaire, the benefits of being a hybrid make up for the hassles, and help him represent the edgy wines he champions. "I realized that the sense of indeterminacy makes [guests] more open to trying new things," he says. "The lack of form makes them have to depend on the human who's there working in the shop." ■

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - October 2016