Felice

I stopped by Felice at 1166 1^st Ave tonight and I have to say, sadly, that I was not impressed with this wine bar. I really wanted to love this place and I had such high hopes for it.

Without further ado, here goes my first negative review in Clint Eastwood style; The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.

I’ll start with the Good. The décor was awesome with a great Old World feel to it. The bar was rustic and felt like a mix of an Italian café and the captain’s quarters of a ship (I should tell you that I have this fascination with pirates…). You’ll see what I mean from the pictures. The seats were very comfortable tan tufted leather and the tables were all made of hefty wood and adorned with candles. Wine bottles lined both walls up to the ceiling and in the center of the room hung a very cool fixture that consisted of glass jugs suspended from the ceiling. I imagine it would be quite romantic later in the evening with softer lighting and candles lit. Like I said, very high hopes for this place!

Felice had a huge selection of unique Italian wines, which were very reasonably priced. Glasses of wine were between $8 and $18 and bottles started at $34 up to an average of $120. There was one expensive bottle that caught my attention, since I love Nebbiolo. It was a 2001 Angelo Gaja Sori San Lorenzo for $360. Someday, Nebbiolo, someday…

Felice seems to be a neighborhood haunt, as the customer base was pretty casual and the age groups varied quite a bit. There were couples in their late 20s, late 40s/early 50s, and even a mother with her little tyke, who was adorable and quite a social little dude (he was running around the bar).

I didn't order any of their appetizers, but the scents wafting from the kitchen were heavenly. If I do return to Felice, perhaps I'll try the food.

Now, on to the Bad. This is partially my fault because I made a poor selection for my wine. I always like to try a wine I’ve never had before at each wine bar, so at Felice I selected a Schiava. The first sip tasted like fermented NyQuil. Seriously. After a couple sips I did get used to it, but the wine was heavy on the tannins and very astringent. It would probably be better as a food wine rather than by itself. Regardless of this fact, I have never had a wine that I disliked by itself, aside from Port. My not liking the wine shouldn’t necessarily be attached to Felice, but the next category absolutely should be.

You know what comes next – The Ugly. The staff gave me a warm greeting as I entered the bar. “Great!” I thought to myself, “this is going to be a pleasant experience”. And then I sat down. I was one of only 4 customers in the bar and once I reviewed the menu for a while, not one of the many waiters and waitresses on duty came to my table to take my order or help me with any wine selections until about 5 minutes had passed. They were a bit unprofessional and were hanging out next to the bar area talking loudly and goofing off. I happened to have a table right by the bar, so I was awkwardly (I love that word, don’t I?) amidst it all. This place was very small, so it’s not as if they were out of sight or earshot of the customers. They did start moving around and checking on tables once more groups of customers arrived, but they would still congregate at the end of the bar and continue their banter after they made their brief stops at the tables. It's perfectly fine to have fun at work, but not directly in front of the customers to that extent. This really ruined the experience for me and I was very disappointed. At least it looks like a fun place to work.

Maybe it was just my seat, maybe it was because I was alone and there was no one to distract me from the rowdy staff, but I rate this place 2.9 out of 5 glasses. Sorry, Felice! I wanted so badly to love you, but it just wouldn’t have worked out between us.

Outside of Felice

See what I mean? Italian cafe/Ship. Love it!

Fermented Nyquil or Schiava?



Vyne

I visited Vyne at 82 W 3^rd St today. I got out of work early, so I thought it would be the perfect time to get started on my next review. I may have been a little too eager to do this because I ended up being the first patron to walk into the bar. Whoops! I definitely probably looked like an alcoholic. The bartender was very friendly though and I took a seat on one of the plush couches in the center of the bar.

Vyne is very laid back and it almost feels like you’re in someone’s living room. In addition to the cushy leather couch I was already seated on, there were leather benches and short tables along the wall, 4 person tables, and a tall family style table with high stools. The mix and match seating made it a very comfortable environment. There was also an old fireplace that one member of the staff offered to light for me since I was sitting near it. Very sweet, but it was quite hot outside, so I declined.

There was a lovely mix of foreign jazz playing at the bar, which I really, really liked. The place smelled like fresh linen, probably from the candles that decorated the area around the fireplace. This adds to the homey feel but could detract from the wine experience. This may be my inner wine geek talking, but there shouldn’t be additional strong scents that could interfere with the ability to smell the aroma of the wine in your glass. But, I digress. I enjoy the atmosphere that Vyne has created. It’s a very soft and welcoming place, at least on a Tuesday night.

As I said, the staff was very warm and friendly and the bartender was happy to make a suggestion when I was torn between the Assyrtiko from Greece and a Viogner. He recommended the Assyrtiko and I had actually read an article about the wine recently, so I decided to go with it. The wine was brought to me in a mini carafe, which I’ve always thought was adorable. Now, since I’ve never had this wine before, I wasn’t sure what to expect and I do believe it tasted like olives. Or maybe I just had Greek salad on my mind? Either way, it was tasty and one of the more full bodied white wines I've had.

The wine menu was a little bit limited for by the glass orders. However, the bottle list was very extensive with great selections, including a 1995 Louis Jadot Croton-Greves Grand Cru! Vyne actually priced this bottle very well at $100 when it retails for about $70. By the glass prices were unfortunately rather expensive. The Altos Malbec was $12 a glass and this wine retails for about $14 a bottle. Not so sure if this is a good place to go if you aren’t planning on buying a bottle. It would be great for couples or groups, however! As for the other wines, they had many Italian, French, and Spanish wines with many by Domaine, which is a very reliable label. The least expensive bottle on the list was $40, while the most expensive bottle was a whopping $375. They also offered half bottles, which were priced between $48 and $120. On a side note, I took a look at their wine menu online to pull the names of some of the bottles I saw, but clearly it has not been updated on their site because it was a very different menu from what was available today.

Seeing as I was the only person in the bar, I was finding myself short of information on what kind of people come to Vyne, when suddenly another customer entered! The heavens rejoice. I was no longer the obviously awkward lonely girl on whom everyone’s attention was focused. From the few people that arrived after me, I can judge that this bar draws an early 30s, casual, after work crowd. Obviously this is not an accurate portrayal of the people that typically come here, so I may have to come back on a busier evening in order to truly tell you about what kind of people frequent Vyne. But this is supposed to be primarily about the wine anyway, right?

I had a good time at Vyne, despite being the only customer for most of my visit. It wasn’t a remarkable experience, but I would like to go back again when it’s busy to see what it’s really like when they have a crowd. I rate Vyne 3.5 out of 5 glasses.

Exterior of Vyne (currently shrouded by scaffolding, so I wasn't able to get a good picture. Thanks for the image, yelp!)

Interior of Vyne

Mini carafe!

Fireplace

Vyne stored their wine within these neat cast iron cabinets along the walls. Very cool!