Pierre Loti Midtown

I reviewed the Pierre Loti near Union Square back when it was the only Pierre Loti. They’ve since opened 2 more locations, so I thought it was about time that I checked them out. I went to Pierre Loti Midtown, located at 300 E 52^nd St, just off of 2^nd Ave.

This location is small, but has two floors of seating. The first level looks welcoming, with white subway tiles on the wall, a tin ceiling, and hefty wooden tables. It was full when I visited, so I was seated on the surprisingly less appealing second floor.

The first thing I noticed was that this location definitely felt more like a restaurant than a wine bar. Not only were most of the people there eating an entrée, but I actually had to flip through 4 pages of the dinner menu before I even found the wine list. The menu was also missing the story of who Pierre Loti is and why this wine bar was inspired to name the place after him. Maybe the menus have changed since I was last at a Pierre Loti, but I liked that historical tidbit. The wine is pretty well priced; glasses are $8 to $14 and bottles are $30 to $160. Unfortunately, unlike their Union Square location, they did not offer a flight option. Their menu features wines from around the world, but it focuses on French varietals.

The décor upstairs had a cheap feel to it, not at all like the relaxed, bohemian vibe of their other location. The walls were painted bright red, there were crushed velvet cushions on the benches, and there was some crappy tinsel hanging from one wall at an attempt at decorating for the holidays, and a weird rope was strung across the windows because obviously the first thing one thinks about when going to a French wine bar is sailing. It was weird and very midtown-y.

As I was looking over the menu, the waitress, who seemed to be in a rush, came to my table and told me the happy hour specials on their wine. They sounded pretty good at $6 a glass and included their house wine, but I hadn’t decided what I wanted to drink yet, so I told her I would keep them in mind as I was looking over the menu. “The happy hour wines aren’t on the menu” is what she responded with. Alrighty then! I told her I was going to look for a few more minutes and she walked away. I noticed a wine called Pierre Loti and on the menu it was described as “our own blend”. It sounded like they produced their own wine at the bar, which I thought was very unique. The only time I’ve ever seen a wine bar do that was at City Winery. When the waitress came back, I pointed to the wine and asked her if this was the house wine. This is how our conversation proceeded:

“No, I told you the happy hour wines aren’t on the menu.” Yikes.

“That’s not the house wine?”

“No, it’s from France.”

“Do you age it here though?”

“No, the wine is from France”, she said as she poked her finger at the “France” section of the menu. “We don’t have a vineyard.”

“Oh, I thought maybe you imported the juice and aged it here.”

“No, it just has the same name.”

Charming, I know. Excuse me for being the idiot who thought you were doing something wonderfully uncommon in the city. I’ve never been talked down to like that at a wine bar, or any place in the city for that matter. The waitress left my table since I was a little too stunned to make another selection after that lovely interaction. I eventually chose a 2005 Chateau Meynard Bordeaux. It smelled hot, which is a term for a wine that has an apparent higher alcohol level. It had a floral nose with notes of spiced plum as well. It did taste like it had a high percentage of alcohol, or maybe that was just wishful thinking. Either way it didn’t affect the palate too much and it tasted like black cherry and a little bit of lavender. The fruit character and acidity balanced one another well and it had nice round tannins. It was a pretty enjoyable wine for a not so enjoyable experience at Pierre Loti.

This location is almost the exact opposite of the one near Union Square and makes it seem like there are two completely different owners of each Pierre Loti. At least I hope that’s the case. The charm is lost with this midtown wine bar. The service is laughably terrible and in my case, argumentative. Absolutely skip it and go out of your way to their other location, unless of course, that one has changed too. If it wasn’t for the wine and the friendly bus boys, I would give this place an even lower rating. I give Pierre Loti Midtown 2 out of 5 glasses. And I’m not sorry about it.

My glass of Bordeaux

Whoa, I almost forgot I was in a bar and not on a ship!

This is either incredibly misleading, or my waitress was even worse than I thought.

It even has the same logo as their menu! C'mon!

I like to imagine Monsieur Loti is looking away in shame

Amelie

Last Friday I visited Amelie, a primarily French wine bar located at 22 W 8^th St in Greenwich Village. Its sister wine bar is located in San Francisco. I had heard some buzz about this place, which opened this year, and knew that I needed to check it out before it gets wildly popular. I guess that makes me a hipster.

This wine bar definitely has some modern flair to it. The ceiling was draped with fabric and made it look a little bit like a circus tent. The whole place was decked out with a wide variety of funky light fixtures, the bright red, glossy bar was shaped like a surfboard and there were thin oblong tables jutting out from the opposite wall. It was very Euro and a little futuristic. If Star Trek had been produced by the French, this is what the set would have looked like. It was a fun and very unique environment for a wine bar.

Since it’s a French wine bar, I was expecting it to serve strictly French wines. However, they had a wide selection from many different countries, including a couple of wines from Greece. I thought it was an impressive wine list. Glasses started at $9 and were no more than $17, bottles were in the $27 to $280 range, and they offered a flight of any 3 by the glass wines for $10. The flight sounded like a great deal, so I ordered that and I constructed a flight of all $12+ wines to make the most of it. I chose a Burgundy, a Rioja Castillo, and a Beaucanon Cabernet Franc. They weren’t small pours either, I would say they were right around 3oz each, which makes this particular flight a bargain. I mentally high-fived my thrifty side.

First up was the Rioja Castillo, which is made with the Tempranillo grape. It smelled like vanilla and cedar, signs that it was oak aged. It had a slightly tart flavor, like cranberry and some blueberry. It had a good backbone of acidity and was pleasant.

The Burgundy was next. The region of Burgundy, France produces wines made with the Pinot Noir grape, so I had a general idea of what to expect of this wine. It smelled a little metallic and was not very aromatic, which surprised me. Hoping that it wasn’t out of condition, I boldly took a sip. Perhaps it should have been served before the Tempranillo because this wine was too delicate to taste after a wine that had a fuller body than this one. All I could gather were faint notes of cocoa and a little sour strawberry. For a Burgundy that is $16 a glass, I thought it could be better. I decided to let it open up for a while and I moved on to the next wine; the Cabernet Franc.

The first word that came to mind when I smelled this wine was “legit”. It was a stark and decidedly lovely contrast to the previous wine. It smelled sharply of herbs and wet leaves as well as some vegetal notes. It was full bodied and had a rich, meaty flavor with a good balance of dried fruit character. t’s not often that I seek out a wine that I’ve had at a wine bar, but I will be purchasing a dozen cases bottles of this one. At this time, I returned to the Burgundy and discovered that it didn’t taste so lively because it was lacking acidity. Maybe it was because I drank it along with the wrong wines or maybe it was just the particular bottle that my wine was poured from, but I found it to be a little dull.

Overall, Amelie is as legit as that Cabernet Franc. The energy of this place is terrific and it draws a fun crowd. It has a great European character to it (and not just because the staff all have delightful French accents), the service is very good, and they have a wonderful selection of well priced wines – especially if you order the flight. You definitely need to go here. I give it a rating of 4.8 out of 5 glasses.

My flight of wine

The wine bar on the starship Enterprise

The bar has a great energy during happy hour!