Lelabar

I went to Lelabar on Wednesday night. It’s tucked away in a quiet part of the West Village at 422 Hudson St, just off of the corner of Leroy St.

It’s a really neat little bar! It’s small, but well designed for the space with narrow “shelves” if you will, serving as tables around the wall. The main bar is in the center of the room and has a cool wrought iron design all around the bottom. It was already decently full around 6:30, even on a rainy evening such as the one I ventured out in. The atmosphere is relaxed and it has a very warm, cozy vibe. The place is dimly lit and smells like wood. I became a fan as soon as I walked in.

Their wine list is huge. Not many wines are available by the glass, but they have lots of bottles available as well as a separate half-bottle list. Glasses start at $8, which are the happy hour special wines, and the most expensive is $16. Bottles are priced between $38 and $220 and half bottles are $32 to $85. There are also two flights of wine to choose from at $16 each. They include 3 wines and you can choose from Italian Whites or Fall Reds. This is definitely a great place to come if you’re planning on sharing a bottle with someone because the wines that were the most attractive, at least to me, were not available by the glass. However, I did see somewhere on the menu that they will open any bottle of wine if you order two glasses of it.

The staff were all really nice and when I was looking around to find a menu, one of the bartenders waved me over and handed me a wine list. Unfortunately they don’t have table service and you have to go up to the bar to order. Luckily it’s a small enough space that even if you step away to order you won’t be far from your table should a purse thief decide to strike.

I ordered the 2009 Pithon Paille Cotequx du Layon Chenin Blanc say that three times fast from the Loire Valley of France. It was listed under sweet wines, which isn’t usually the case with Chenin Blanc, as it is a dry white wine. This tells me that it was made with Chenin Blanc grapes that were affected by noble rot. Yes, it sounds weird, and it is a bit odd that someone even thought to make wine with these kinds of grapes, but let me tell you the story of noble rot. It’s a mold that grows on only a few types of grapes (Riesling, Chenin Blanc, and Sauternes are the most commonly affected). The mold will shrivel the skin of the grape, causing the water in the fruit to evaporate, leaving behind super concentrated sugar levels in the grape juice. When this juice is fermented it makes very sweet wine. Noble rot wines are more expensive because the grapes need to be picked by hand in order to select the grapes that have just enough of this gnarly mold. So, I was pretty excited when I saw this wine available by the glass and it was only $11!

Upon first sip, I noticed that the wine was pretty acidic and not nearly as sweet as I was expecting. Actually, it wasn’t sweet at all. It was good, but I immediately suspected that when I had gone up to the bar to order my wine, the bartender had misheard me. It was pretty busy and loud around the bar and my voice was a bit tired that day. My suspicions were confirmed when I received the check later on and saw that I was charged for the $8 happy hour white wine, which was a Rioja Bianco. It would be much easier to receive the correct wine if servers came by the tables instead of requiring the customers to order at the bar. It would have also helped if I had been wearing my glasses when a bartender came over to my table to show me the bottle and pour my glass. Whoops! A fail on my part as well. I really enjoy red wines from Rioja and I had never tried white wines from the area, until this surprise glass. This wine had green fruit and citrus flavors and a hint of white pepper. It’s a good transitional fall white wine, as it was medium bodied and crisp. I’ll just have to try that sweet Chenin Blanc next time I go to Lelabar! I will be back for sure.

This bar is very pretty and relaxing and they have a ginormous wine list. Although they have few wines available by the glass, if you come here with a friend or a date they have really great bottles to share. I give Lelabar a rating of 4 out of 5 glasses. Great vibe, great space, great wines.

Little Lelabar

The cozy interior of the bar

Rioja Bianco masquerading as Chenin Blanc

The cutest little escape from a rainy night :)