Vino 313

I visited Vino 313, which is cleverly named for its location at 31^st and 3^rd. I was impressed with this place right away. The service was very prompt and as soon as I removed my layers of cold weather garb and sat down, the waitress arrived at my table. Once I finished looking over the menu, there she was! The attention was noticed and certainly appreciated.

The place was pretty empty when I arrived, but it started to pick up around 7 and was about half full. The people here seem to mostly be on the south side of 30 and some were here with friends and I did notice some couples on dates.

At first glance the wines look a little expensive for what they are: I recognized a Pinot Noir from the list because I buy it on occasion. It's $13 a glass here and while it is good, I know a bottle of it retails for a touch less than that. So, with that being my guide I decided to avoid the less expensive wines thinking they would be a bit sub-par. Glasses are between $9 and $14 and bottles ranged from $34 to $250. There were quite a few US wines from California, Oregon, and Washington. Lots of French wines, some wines were from Italy, and a small selection from other European countries.

After being disappointed with the reds that I've had at wine bars lately, I decided to be a big spender to order the $13 glass of 2007 Patrick Lesec Syrah from the Rhone Valley in hopes that I could enjoy a delicious glass of wine. Sigh....disappointed by a wine again. The Syrah smelled ok; like chocolate and I seemed to notice a hint of olive-like scents...hmm. It tasted like blackberry and had a touch of that olive flavor. It was very rich and medium bodied. It would have been better with food.

They even had a nice looking, albeit, overpriced list of fortified and dessert wines. Glasses were $10 to $25. I've had enjoyable sherrys that were less than the price of one glass here, same goes for the Port. Le sigh. My husband was out finishing up some Christmas shopping so I would have had time to enjoy a little glass of sweet wine, but honestly with these prices I wasn't tempted in the least. Maybe I'll just pick up a bottle on my way home instead.

The atmosphere at Vino 313 is nice and feels like your average Murray hill cafe. Upbeat, jazzy music was playing. The decor was nothing special: orangey walls, some tall booths, and standard wooden cafe tables.

I like the friendly atmosphere and service of Vino 313, but their wines aren't quite the value I would have expected. This would be a great place to enjoy some lunch with a side of wine, but from my experience there, judged solely as a wine bar I would give this place a rating of 3.4 out of 5 glasses.

The cafe vibe of the bar