The Immigrant

I visited The Immigrant today at 341 E 9^th St in the East Village. The bar is in a tiny, narrow space, which makes it very quaint. I believe the space used to be a tenement building, which explains the small stature of the bar. It’s old, it’s clean, and it’s cozy.

The bartender, who also appeared to be the owner, was super nice and wanted me to hang out at the bar when he found out I did not have another guest joining me. He had already been deep in conversation with another customer at the bar, so it looks like a very friendly joint. If I wasn’t trying to take notes the entire time, I might have taken him up on the offer.

The music playing was indie rock and reminded me of Urban Outfitters and seemed a little out of place for a wine bar. However, this was the East Village, so perhaps it was fitting for their usual crowd. A pretty varied group of people were at The Immigrant. At first I thought it was mostly going to be the usual 20s age group, but a party of middle aged women stopped by as well.

The wine menu was as tiny as the bar itself. Only 16 bottles of wine were offered, including the 13 that were able to be ordered by the glass as well. Glasses were between $11 and $14 and bottles were rather inexpensive, with the highest being priced at just over $50. I ordered the Tempranillo as the rest of the reds looked a little dull. There were two Pinot Noirs, but neither was from California and instead both were from France. I prefer my Pinot Noir to be more on the ripe side, which the sun in California creates (the extra sunlight produces higher levels of sugar). So instead of a Pinot Noir, I opted for something that I knew was from its best region. This Tempranillo was from the Rioja region of Spain. It was very full bodied with a rich blackberry finish and I would have liked it with a tasty sheepsmilk cheese, such as a Manchego. It was a tad too heavy to drink by itself though, at least in the summer.

Aahh, again there were scented candles on the tables! This is a big wine bar pet peeve of mine. I can't stress this enough, but scented candles interfere with being able to smell the wine's aroma, which is a huge part of enjoying a wine. Non scented or fake candles please. Fellow winos everywhere thank you :) Update: after reading my review, the owner informed me that the candles are unscented and what I was smelling were cleaning products as he had just cleaned the bar.

“Meh” is the overall feeling I have of The Immigrant. There wasn't anything outstanding about this place. It seems like a nice neighborhood spot, but I wouldn’t venture to the East Village just to go here. If you live nearby, stop in. But if you don’t, you can certainly find something more spectacular (hopefully with a little help from my blog). I give The Immigrant a rating of 3.2 out of 5 glasses.

Tiny wine list

My glass of Tempranillo alongside the dreadful scented unscented candle ;)



Comments

[Jason]

Thanks for the write up. I remember you, and the article was very kind! The votives are not scented though. I had just cleaned the joint...

My best, Jason