Ayza West Village

Tonight I had originally ventured out to visit a different wine bar but I actually had some trouble finding it. I happened to remember walking by Ayza West Village at 7^th Ave & Carmine while it was under construction. Lo and behold, it is now open! So, I stopped in to see how it compares to its midtown location.

This location is much smaller than their midtown bar if you include the outdoor seating area, but this makes it more intimate. Despite its size, the bar is laid out well to create some privacy at each of the tables. The ambiance here is enjoyable, low lighting is provided by an array of hanging lights all over the bar, the music isn’t loud and really the only background noise I noticed was the pleasant drone of conversation and laughter. It was nice. The crowd here is mostly on the younger side – I’d say most of the other guests were in their mid to late 20s. It seemed to be mostly friends getting together after work, although I did notice some couples as well.

Once I was seated at my table, the waitress offered me a sample of their warm spiced wine, which was a Syrah and I liked it so much that I ordered a mug of it. I had never had spiced wine (also referred to as mulled wine) before, so I decided to try something different. You can make mulled wine yourself by heating (not boiling - you don’t want to cook off that alcohol!) a robust red wine with oranges, a lemon, cloves, cinnamon sticks, and a bit of brown sugar or honey. It’s wintery deliciousness. My mug of wine smelled and tasted like cloves and cinnamon, very much like a mulled cider but it was heartier and the alcohol gave it some nice additional warmth. It wasn’t particularly cold outside tonight, but this is the perfect wine to warm up with on a blustery winter evening. I might even make this my new winter weekend staple :)

Ayza’s wine list features wines that are mostly from France, Italy, and California. The glasses are priced between $6 and $19 and bottles are $30 to $225, although many of the bottles were under $50. The selections seem to be a pretty good value because I recognized some of the wines that I buy in my local retail store and the glasses here at Ayza were less expensive than the retail price of the bottle. Usually glasses are equal to the average retail price of a bottle, so I was happy to see that Ayza wasn’t trying to pillage my wallet.

The service here was very prompt and cheery, the ambiance was really nice, and the wine selection is pretty decent. Comparing this place to Ayza’s midtown location, I have to say that everything is better in the West Village. I give Ayza West Village a rating of 4.2 out of 5 glasses.



My mug o'wine

The cool bar area of Ayza West Village...and my thumb