Last weekend, the hubby and I decided to hang out in a wine bar. We chose V Bar St Marks, located in the East Village at 132 1st Ave.
The bar was much busier than I would have expected on a Saturday afternoon. We grabbed the last two seats in the place – right at the bar. It was hot, the crowd was loud and so was the music. Not quite what I think of when it comes to a wine bar. It had a slightly grungy feel to it. Classic rock was blaring, the floors were concrete, ceilings were tin, the walls were exposed brick, and one wall had a cool painting of a griffin on it. It definitely felt more like a dive bar than anything else.
The wine list was surprisingly extensive, with plenty of by the glass wines to choose from. It was heavy on the French and Italian wines and also included some from the US. However, vintages were not shown on the menu. The wines were well priced with glasses between $9 and $14 and bottles were $20 to $70.
I ordered the Parallele 45 Cotes du Rhone. Although it was served out of a clunky wine glass, the pour was very generous. It smelled like plum and nutmeg and tasted like baking spices and peppercorn. The spice kind of overwhelmed the fruit character, but overall it was enjoyable. As I mentioned before, the atmosphere of V Bar didn’t make it feel anything close to a wine bar. In fact, looking around I noticed only one person drinking champagne. Everyone else had beer or cocktails. After we finished our wine, we switched to beer. That’s a first for one of my reviews!
Overall, V Bar St Marks is a cool place to grab a casual beer, but I would not by any means call it a wine bar. Wine doesn’t fit in with any part of this bar. Strictly as a wine bar, I have to give this place a rating of 2.8 out of 5 glasses. I’m just not feelin’ it.
The outside of V Bar St Marks
Griffin!
Clunky dive bar wine glass