Gallo Nero

On Wednesday night, I went to Gallo Nero which is located at 402 W 44^th St in Hell’s Kitchen. As I approached the wine bar, I was pleased when I saw a café chalkboard outside the door that said “Life is too short for bad wine” on one side. Since that is practically my mantra, I was looking forward to trying this place out. For a chuckle, take a look at the logo on their sign – the Italian translation of “gallo nero” is exactly what you think it is.

I walked in and wasn’t greeted right away, even though it wasn’t busy. There was a woman sitting at the bar who seemed like she worked there, but she only smiled at me and looked back up at the tv above the bar. Hmm…so maybe I’m supposed to seat myself. As I started for a tall, tiny table that looked like a log in the dim light of the bar, a man came up to me and showed me to the table of my choice. I awkwardly positioned myself around the log-table and was greeted with a slightly terrifying porcelain clown face on the wall across the table from me. I looked around and the whole bar seemed to have a circus theme to it. There were various strange masks on the walls, each one creepier than the last. Yet, it maintained a cozy Italian charm with much of the wall space being taken up by wooden shelves stocked with bottles of wine, and the dining area was tightly packed with small worn wooden tables and a couple large marble top tables. Although Gallo Nero is an Italian wine bar and is advertised as such, it feels very much like a restaurant. While I was there, most of the other customers were eating dinner, rather than enjoying a few glasses of wine as I would have expected. The whole place felt a little conflicted. As I mentioned, there was a tv above the bar, which is totally fine, but it was blaring an Italian film and most of the staff was standing around watching it, including the woman sitting at the bar, who was indeed a waitress. Perhaps it was meant for the whole bar to feel like you’re hanging out in a former circus performer’s someone’s home in Italy, but it was surprisingly unprofessional, especially for a place that has been open for less than a year.

I was hoping that the wine at least lived up to my expectations. All of the wines were Italian and there were plenty of selections to choose from. Glasses were priced between $10 and $19 and bottles were well priced at $35 to $69. I ordered a glass of the 2009 Organic Montefalco Rosso Di Filippo. It had a great aroma of herbs, leaves, and dried fruit and tasted like cherry with a slightly sour strawberry note to it. This was a lovely wine, had a zingy acidity, was well balanced, and was the best part of my experience at Gallo Nero.

The service was very friendly when they were interacting with the customers, including myself, but it seemed a rather lazy. To sum up Gallo Nero, it’s rustic, whimsical, and unprofessional with some very good Italian wines on the menu. It’s difficult for me to hate on a place that quotes Hemingway on a chalkboard, but when he said “Wine is the only civilized thing in the world”, Gallo Nero may have taken it too literally. I give it a rating of 3.2 out of 5 glasses.

Gallo Nero and their quotable cafe chalkboard

My tasty glass of Montefalco

The tv above the bar

My drinking buddy for the evening

Wine Escape

I recently returned from vacation and had a lot of catching up to do with my wine bar reviews! I started back up again with Wine Escape in Hell’s Kitchen at 405 W 44^th St.

Wine Escape is a relatively new wine bar and you can tell; there is a seemingly untouched leather bench alongside one of the walls, the wooden floors are free of any scuffs, scratches or creaks, and the walls are painted a stark white and punctuated with brightly colored works of art. It seemed like it was lacking a bit of character, I’m assuming because it was so new and hadn’t quite discovered what it wants to be yet. It had a fresh feeling to it though.

The wine list was well selected with a couple choice wines from each country. Glasses were between $10 and $14 and bottles of the same wines ranged from $36 to $120. As I was looking over the menu, the waitress (or perhaps the sommelier) informed me that she had constructed flights that featured wines from all around the world. Being immediately intrigued once she mentioned that a wine from Portugal was involved, I ordered the flight of red wine, which was $16 for 4 glasses of 2oz pours of wine.

Each of the wines in the flight was brought out one at a time, which I thought was very charming. The waitress introduced each wine as she brought it out and described its aroma and flavors. I thought it was a very nice and genuine touch to the service. The first wine was a Pinot Noir from California. It had a delicate oakiness and it tasted like strawberry. It had a slightly oily mouth feel to it, but it was tasty. The glasses were a little too small to get a good whiff of the aroma, but it kind of smelled like ripe strawberry and a little bit animalistic. The second wine was Spanish and it was called something that sounded like Branco Danco? I really wish the wines had been on a list so I could write about them more accurately. Anyhow, it smelled like lilac and vanilla, which was very interesting. I don’t recall ever encountering a red wine that smelled so sweet and fragrant. It tasted like vanilla and herbs with a touch of plum. It was very unique.

The third wine was from Portugal (hooray!) and once again, I unfortunately did not catch the name. It smelled like tomato leaves and dark cherry and tasted like blackberry with a hint of cocoa. It was dry and had a vegetal finish. It was delicious! The last wine of the flight was a South African Pinotage. It smelled like freshly cut grass and something sweet that I couldn’t put my finger on. My sister in law, who had joined me, suggested that it smelled like coffee and BOOM, the connection was made. It had the sweet, yet bitter aroma of coffee grounds. It tasted like blueberry and the flavor of a cappuccino Jelly Belly, dare I say.

The service was fantastic. As soon as someone in our group had finished their glass, the waitress showed up with the next wine in the flight and introduced it. The waitress was so sweet and prompt with her service that I hate to point out how painfully awkward she was. It was endearing, but she seemed really uncomfortable. However, she was genuine, very knowledgeable about the wines, and made the bar feel very wine-centric. Wine Escape is a cool place with a low-key vibe. It does need to add some more personality to its atmosphere, but this will come with time I’m sure. I give it a rating of 3.9 out of 5 glasses.

I was so lost in each glass of wine that I kept forgetting to take a picture until the glass was nearly empty

one of the cute examples of the artwork on display at Wine Escape