Drink of the Vine

Entries in Upper East Side (7)

Thursday
May242012

Balon

This week, I reviewed Balon which is located on the Upper East Side at 245 E 81st St. The exterior has a new-looking, pretty, brick facade with a big entryway and some plants outside to liven up the street. The inside is just as lovely. The bar feels like a trendy, modern, European café. French music was playing the entire time I was there, the bar has all different types of leather and wicker seating, arched doorways, a painted ceiling, and there is a garden in the back. Even the view looking out onto the street is quaint. Everything about this place is luxe. It’s definitely not a casual place! I would have felt very odd had I been wearing jeans.

The wines are moderately expensive with glasses starting at $10 and up to $18 and bottles are $40 to $79. The average price of a glass was about $15, however. Many of the wines were from France, so I decided to order a 2009 Florian Mollet Pouilly Fume because it’s my favorite French wine to say. It’s pronounced “Poo ee foo may”. Fun, right? Pouilly Fume is a dry white wine from the Loire Valley of France and it's made with the Sauvignon Blanc grape. It generally has a smoky or mineral-like quality to it, although I didn’t taste or smell either of these in this particular wine. It was yummy, though. It smelled like lemon and perhaps a little bit of mineral? It was difficult to pick up on if it was there. It tasted like grapefruit and honeysuckle and it had a tart finish with a solid acidity that left my tongue feeling a little tingly. The wine was served in delicate stemware, but the pour was on the small side considering how expensive it was.

While the space is gorgeous, the atmosphere is kind of cold and uptight. Customers, myself included, that were there just for drinks were refused seats at the empty tables in the back of the bar. Instead, we could sit at the bar or at one of the café tables in front. It seemed a little uptight to me. The staff was nice and although they were chatting with another one of the customers seated at the bar for a bit, they weren’t very attentive. I was completely ignored between being served the wine and finishing it. The bartender was actually openly reading her Kindle and was probably in the middle of 50 Shades of Grey a chapter when I finished my wine because it took her a while to notice that I was either ready for another glass or the check. Good thing I wasn’t in a hurry. I finally got the check and….there was a $30 minimum for credit cards. I didn’t notice this useful piece of information anywhere on the menu, so this was a surprise. Businesses get charged a certain percentage for charging credit cards, I get it. But do you have to inconvenience your customers because of this? Who carries that much cash around these days? That was the nail in the coffin. Sorry, Balon. I also think you owe me the $3 fee for the ATM that I had to walk two blocks for.

This wine bar is really nice, but I wasn’t particularly blown away by anything aside from the fantastic space. Props to whoever designed the interior here! The wine I had was very good, but I don’t think I enjoyed it enough to order another $15 glass of it. Relax the atmosphere a bit, throw out this ridiculous credit card minimum, and this place would be cool. For now, I give Balon a rating of 3 out of 5 glasses.

The cool exterior of Balon

My glass of Pouilly Fume

The beautiful interior of Balon

The quaint view of 81st St from inside the bar

Friday
Jun242011

Heidi's House

How absolutely charming! Heidi’s House is small and adorable. It’s located at 308 E 78th St and like the name suggests, it feels like you’re in someone’s home.

Flowers were everywhere; there are flower beds outside of the bar, they’re on every little table, and at the end of the bar there is an arrangement of a glass lamp, old pitchers, and more flowers. Jazz music was playing, ceiling fans were on, and the windows in the front of the bar were open, letting in fresh air and Upper East Side neighborhood noises. Everything about this place is homey and cozy! It’s so quaint and I really loved the atmosphere.

The bartender was very friendly and right away he let me know that he wasn’t the “wine guy” of the bar, so he offered to let me try anything I liked before I ordered. I haven’t encountered that at a wine bar before, or any bar for that matter. Maybe some places will allow you sample, but this is the first time it’s been offered to me without asking! Perfect, I can avoid ordering a wine that ends up being not so fantastic. The bartender would strike up a little conversation and ask if there was anything I needed pretty often and he was generally a really sweet man.

After sampling it, I ordered the 2008 Herbauges Muscadet for $8. For the price, this was a very good Muscadet. It smelled a little lemony, but I couldn’t quite get a good read on the aroma for some reason. The flavor had soft notes of apricot and a touch of lemon. The acidity was the perfect level to make your mouth water just enough and the flavor lingered with a nice, warm finish. I thought it was an excellent value.

The glasses could be taller to allow for swirling the wine a bit. I actually had to wait until I drank about half of my glass before I could swirl and sniff properly. But that is the only suggestion I have for Heidi’s House.

Prices are very good, with glasses being between $6 and $15 and bottles starting at $20 up to mid $50. Considering that I had such a good glass of Muscadet for $8, I don’t think it would be too risky to assume that all of the wines on the list will be great. This was the most affordable wine bar I’ve been to yet. I also noted that they source local organic food and ingredients as often as possible. Awesome! I can always appreciate that.

Heidi herself came in later and she was loud, funny, and friendly. She knew some of the customers and sat down to chat with them for a while and even came over to my table to see what I was drinking and shared some stories about her cat. She has definitely made this a very personable bar and I really wish I lived across the street because I would be in here all the time.

It was slow while I was there, but from listening to conversations, I gathered that the bar gets very busy around 8pm and is sometimes packed (and probably standy). If you want to experience the homey feel, you should probably go there before it gets too crazy.

I have nothing but love for this place. I’m usually pretty quiet on my reviews, but this was the first time that I gushed about how much I love the place to the owner of a bar. It’s really that good. I want to go back, like right now. I rate Heidi’s House 4.6 out of 5 glasses. 

Adorable

The inviting and homey interior of Heidi's House!

My glass of Muscadet