Ayza

Last night my hubby and I went out for a little double date with some friends of ours at Ayza, which is at 11 W 31^st St. It was a rainy evening and the bar is a wine and chocolate bar, which I thought sounded very tempting on such a night.

The interior of the bar is like an edgy lounge; not a typical wine bar setting. The bar was lit by square hanging lights made of linen, there was a wall of wine racks above the bar that were covered by metal grates, and the walls were square wooden paneling. There were lots of 2 person tables throughout the bar as well as an outdoor seating area, which was covered by a tent since it was raining. It was a very colorful place. The chairs and benches had red cushions and there were blue tiles on some of the walls.

Lots of tables were already reserved by the time I arrived, so if you’re planning on coming here, especially on a busy night like a Friday, I would suggest making reservations if you don’t want to wait for an hour or so. It started to get really busy once 6pm rolled around, so it seems as if this place is the after work midtown lounge to go to. I use the term “standy” to describe bars like this one. A bar is standy when - if you are not fortunate enough to not have a seat - you are shoulder to shoulder with all the other patrons and have to keep your drink close to your chest to prevent it from getting bumped and spilled. I will probably be using this term several times as I visit more crowded wine bars, so keep an eye out for it ;)

The service was a mix of good and sub-par. This was probably due to the fact that it got crazy busy, but I’ve been to some busy wine bars and received excellent service. When I got to the bar, I had let the hostess know that we would need a table for 4. She told me that she could seat us once there were at least 3 people present and that I should let her know when we have more people. No problem. My friend and I had a couple glasses at the bar as we waited for our men to arrive. Once they did, I went back to the woman that I had talked to earlier and told her that everyone for our table of 4 was here now. She stared at me blankly and literally had no idea what I was talking about. She directed me to another hostess who was actually very accommodating and had us seated within about 10 minutes. Another odd thing happened – we closed our tab at the bar and headed to our table, only to have the bartender come to our table and ask me if the service was ok. Slightly confused I said that it was and she showed me my receipt saying that I hadn’t tipped her enough. My friend paid in cash and I had put the rest on my card, so I had tipped 20% based on my charge rather than the whole bill. I blame the wine Simple mistake. I've never worked at a restaurant or bar before - are bartenders discouraged/encouraged to question their customer about the amount of the tip?

The wine menu was good, but not many were offered by the glass. Prices were typical for midtown lounges with glasses priced between $7 and $18 and bottles actually weren’t as expensive as I was expecting; on average they were between $40 and $50 and there were several over $100. There was one bottle on the list that has set the new record for most expensive bottle so far…a bottle of 1998 Chateau Trotonay Merlot from Pomerol, France was a whopping $766. Whoa!

They also had a few options for flights of wine but it looks as if you can’t mix and match whites and reds. You can have a flight of three white wines for $16 or a flight of three red wines for $18 and if you do want both white and red you have to buy the flight of 4 (2 red and 2 white) for $24.

Ayza is a wine and chocolate bar, so I would have expected them to have a section on one of the menus that had suggestions for wine and chocolate pairings, but they didn’t. Chocolate can make red wine taste almost rubber-like, so I think a guide to making the right pairing choices should have been a necessity.

My first glass of wine was the 2008 Pinot Noir from the Burgundy region of France. I usually don’t like French Pinot Noirs much as California Pinots, as I’ve mentioned in previous reviews, but I thought I would give it a try anyway. It was very dry and medium bodied and even though I didn’t have this wine with chocolate, it still tasted a little metallic on the finish. I wasn’t a huge fan of this wine, so for my next (three) glasses I had a 2009 Tenuta Rapitala Nero D’avola from Italy. I’ve never heard of a Nero D’avola so I obviously couldn’t resist trying it. I liked this wine much better! It was very complex and had a touch of spice at the first sip and a long blackberry finish. I raved about it so much that it inspired everyone else at the table to have several glasses of it too. So, if you do happen to stop by Ayza, I strongly suggest you order this wine.

We started to get hungry, so we did order some small dishes from the food menu. I had the White Truffle pizza and oh my goodness. It was freaking delicious! My mouth is watering right now even just writing about it.

Ayza had a fun environment and a decent selection of wines, but I do think it’s a little over hyped. While the Nero D’avola was great, I would go there more for the food than the wine. I give Ayza a rating of 3.5 out of 5 glasses.

Edgy lounge interior of Ayza

Wall of wine

I believe this was my glass of Pinot Noir

I just had to show you the White Truffle Pizza. Is your mouth watering yet?