We found some amazing new wine bars on this trip. We particularly like natural wine or wine with few addictives and lucky for us there are several wine bars that have sprung up that serve natural wine.
The outstanding one was Ten Bells. 247 Broome Street. The wine is natural and the certainly the white wine I drank by the glass (sauvignon boutanche) had that wet paper smell to it, that at first makes you think it is oxidised, but actually it is just slightly botrytised and developed. This makes it an ideal wine to drink with the fresh charcuterie and small fried patatas bravos they serve. We drank and ate at the bar. Would highly recommend seeking this place out if you are in the Lower East Side. We also went to Cocotte, 110 Thompson betw Prince and Spring. Which is a lovely basement wine bar serving small bites. We sat at the small zinc bar and had wines by the glass. Although we didn’t eat there, we will next time as the small dishes all looked really lovely. This has a French flavour to both the wine list and menu.
Lupa was our next stop along Thompson Street. We went here for Sunday lunch. What a treat it was. It seemed like a local hang out and there were lots of families eating there. To start we shared crostinis topped with warm cannellini beans, tuna and pigs jowls. Personally I would have probably have had either the tuna or the pigs jowls but not both. But it was delicious and I certainly was left wanting more…. the main course of pasta well actually gnocchi with fennel, tomatoes and saugage was really good and went excellently with the red wine that Dave ordered. I sipped wine from his glass, was so immersed in our conversation and having a good stare at all the other dinners that I didn’t make a note of what the wine was. But given the type of wine Dave likes to order I would have imagined it was a Sicilian red wine. Whatever it was, it went excellently with the food.
But the real knock place was Black Tree on Orchard Street (they also have a branch in Brooklyn). This is a Slow Food Approved restaurant. I can see why. It was a long dark room, filled up by a long bar. We sat at the bar, but unusually the bar stools where really comfortable and had backs to them, which made sitting there a pleasure. We both had the same thing, which was the “PumKing” Artichoke dip (I am definitely going to try and make this at home), the ingredients were pureed pumpkin mixed with ricotta and thhen a soft egg baked on top sprinkled with pesto made with the artichoke, sour cream, bacon crumbs, nutmeg, chilli flakes and cheddar. It was a real riot of flavours and textures and worked so well with the lovely sour dough bread.
I realise I wandered away from the title of the piece about wine bars in NYC but the excuse is all these places serve really good wine by the glass too. Some other mentions for wine bars are 8th St Wine Cellar which is on 8th Street very close to Washington Square, practically next door is the equally excellent Amelie wine bar, both serve great wines by the glass and also small plates.
The Urban Garden Cook 