Felice - La Soffitta

It’s been a while since I reviewed Felice and they have since opened two new wine bars. I visited the location at 15 Gold St in the Financial District. This particular one has a separate wine lounge upstairs called La Soffitta, while the area downstairs was geared more towards the dinner crowd.

I chose to go to the lounge and I walked up a candle lit stairway to find a suave and sophisticated space with a few gentlemanly touches. There were plush, cognac colored tufted leather couches, small café tables, a retro patterned floor, dark wood panels on the walls, and modern light fixtures. It felt like I was walking onto a Mad Men set.

Once I sank into one of the couches, the waitress brought a menu to me, but I quickly realized that it only listed the happy hour wines. Although they were priced exceptionally well at $5 and $6, neither of the two reds or two whites appealed to me. I asked for their full menu and selected a wine from that instead. Like their other location, all of the wines were Italian. Here, the choices of wine were more limited, although their wine list apparently changes weekly. Wines by the glass were $8 to $20 and there were not any bottle selections. Unless, perhaps, there is yet another menu. The happy hour wines made an appearance on the full menu as well, but they were almost twice the price than during happy hour! This leads me to believe that the rest of their wines are a significant rip off. They also offered flights of any wine at 3 for $15 and 6 for $29, although I’ve seen better deals at other wine bars in the city.

I ordered the 2009 Masut da Rive Pinot Nero for a cringe-worthy $16. It was served in a really pretty tall glass, but the pour seemed a little on the small side, considering the price. The aroma of this wine was lovely. It had notes of red pear and baking spices, but it didn’t taste quite as good as it smelled. The alcohol seemed pretty high and overpowered the fruit character. It initially tasted like dried strawberry, but had a short finish. It opened up around 10 minutes later and the fruit was more evident and the wine more balanced, but overall this wine was not terribly memorable.

Although some relaxed indie and 80s music was playing, the atmosphere at Felice, or La Soffitta, was quiet and even a little stiff. You could hear bits of any conversation from around the room even if you weren’t intending to eavesdrop. That’s what I call great acoustics. In general, the crowd was closer to middle aged, and there were groups of men, couples, and friends, so it was a good mix of people. However, later on in the evening there seemed to be a large number of Wall St….um, stereotypes, shall we say. That’s to be expected given the location of this place though.

I wasn’t overly impressed with this wine bar. The wines are way too expensive for what they are. The service is good and the space is very pretty, but the atmosphere seems a little cold – I don’t feel like I could unwind here. Felice - La Soffitta gets a shoulder shrug and a “meh”. Not to mention, it took a large chunk out of my wine bar budget. I give this place a pretty average rating of 3 out of 5 glasses.

The manly interior of the wine lounge

My expensive, but cool glass of Pinot Nero

Update on Monday, January 28, 2013 by drinkofthevine

I initially reported that their flight of wine was 3 for $29 and I was later informed that this was incorrect. When I reviewed the menu at the bar, there was only that one flight option listed. Was the misprint on the menu or in my notetaking? The world may never know. I only wish I had taken a picture of that page on the menu.

Bin No. 220

I decided to stop by Bin No. 220 tonight. It’s located at 220 Front St near the seaport, which is an area that I wouldn't normally consider a destination for after work drinks, but it was super busy!

The bar has a contemporary flare to it. It has concrete floors, an exposed brick wall, accents of red throughout the room, and a nice display of wine behind the bar. There is also a tiny area of outdoor seating at the entrance. I couldn’t make out much of the music that was playing because the chatter of the crowd was so loud, but I did happen to hear Electric Feel by MGMT and that is a win in my book. I actually do an awkward little dance to that song, but that’s not what this blog is about, right?

The menu is tucked into a brown paper bag, which kind of reminds me of a barf bag. The barf bag wine menu inserts are divided into red and white. Glasses are the average wine bar price of $9 to $14 and bottles are $40 to $400 with the average being around $55. Each of the wines has a brief description of its flavors, which is nice for making a quick decision on what you want to drink. The wine list is selected by each of the two owners, Calli and Sandy, and they pick their favorite wines for the week and have a competition to see whose picks are the most popular. It’s a fun twist to a wine menu! I ordered from Sandy’s side of the menu tonight and selected the 2008 Montepulciano La Murola. The glasses that the wines are served in are cute stemless glasses, but they are tiny, so I had trouble being able to smell the bouquet of my wine. However, it tasted wonderful. It was full bodied, had bitter notes of chocolate and had rich dark berry flavors. It was warm and smooth and was kind of comforting in a way.

While the wine menu this week appears to feature Italian wines, the menu doesn’t show the origin of the wine. Personally, I like to know the story behind my wine. When you’re trying a new wine, it’s a little like a first date. You want to know that basic questions: “Where are you from?” “What’s your hometown like?” “What’s your sign?” That sort of thing. Maybe I’m just being picky, but some people might only know that they like wines from a certain region.

Interesting detail - Bin No. 220 makes their own olive oil, which they serve with ciabatta bread and is also available for purchase. I would have loved to try it, although I didn’t notice this until I was about to leave (and it made me really hungry). I’m sure it’s amazing!

The bar has a casual, fun atmosphere, the wines are quite tasty and continuously changing for the owners’ competition, and the service is very nice and super helpful with recommendations. I’d come here again if I as going out to get drinks in the area. I give Bin No. 220 a rating of 4.2 out of 5 glasses. Thanks for making the wine list so engaging, Calli and Sandy!

The cool entrance to the bar

The menu

My cute glass of wine (and still remaining mostly anonymous)