Sofia

I visited Sofia at 242 E 50^th St. It looks adorable from the outside – like a pretty little townhouse that’s been turned into a café. And it’s equally charming inside.

All of the walls are exposed brick, which immediately adds an Italian charm to the bar. Cast iron chandeliers were hanging over the bar, the place is decorated with all different sorts of candles and random little antiquities. Even the tables look old and they are each topped with a neat quartz candleholder. Sofia is very Italian right down to the soft leather bound menus, chipped porcelain plates, and waiters in suspenders. I liked the romantic atmosphere that the bar provides. This would definitely be a great place for a date.

The rest of the guests at the bar were all dressed in business attire and some were more on the formal side. You would probably feel more comfortable coming here a little bit dressed up, although I don’t think you would stand out if you weren’t.

The wines are from France, Italy, Germany, Argentina, Chile, and the US. The glasses are a little pricey starting at $12 and going up to $22. Bottles of these wines were $42 up to $82, so it would appear that you do get a bit of a quantity discount if you buy the whole bottle as opposed to buying 4 glasses. There is also a separate bottle list where they are more expensive, even going up to $500. Although I did see that they have a bottle of Premier Cru Chambertin for $230. Would Napoleon approve? It was his favorite wine after all.

I ordered the 2008 Super Tuscan from the Piemonte region of Italy. I’ve always wanted to try this wine. It smelled and tasted a little young and I would have preferred it to be a couple of years older. I think writing this blog is giving me a very expensive taste in wine. It was still tasty though! It smelled like blackberry and tasted like cherries and cassis. It was pretty dry and was a little high in alcohol, which was actually a nice way to warm up after walking to Sofia in the pouring rain :) This Super Tuscan was good, but something like this would be a good wine to buy at a local wine store rather than paying $14 for a glass of it. This wine would be very good with food, as most Italian wines are high in acidity to pair with the sauces that they use in their dishes, which are often tomato based and therefore high in acidity as well. Gotta match acid with acid, as I always say! I don’t say that at all, actually. But it is a good rule of thumb when selecting a wine to go with your meal.

The staff was very nice and very aware of when each customer needed their attention. As soon as I looked up from my notes to order a snack of Mac & Cheese, a waiter immediately walked over to my table. And to top off the whole experience at Sofia, chilled York peppermint patties are brought to your table with the check. I like it!

I had a 2007 Dr. Hermann Kabinett Riesling from Germany for my second glass, which lately seems to be one of my go to wines for my summer reviews. One of my friends had joined me as well, so what better occasion to continue drinking? This Riesling smelled like lemon and honeysuckle and had similar notes on the palate. It was delicious and refreshing!

The atmosphere of Sofia is wonderfully old world romantic, but the wines are a little overpriced for what they are. You can find better wines at other bars I’ve been to, but when it comes to an authentic and cozy atmosphere, Sofia is hard to beat. I give it a rating of 4 out of 5 glasses.

The cute exterior of Sofia....sideways.

Cozy and authentically Italian atmosphere

My glass of Super Tuscan

Cute poetry on the menu



Sweet Grapes Wine Bar

I went to Sweet Grapes Wine Bar tonight at 39 Essex St. It’s in a bit of an unusual area; it’s right on the border of Chinatown and the Lower East Side. Not usually where I would expect a wine bar to be located.

It is super, super tiny. There is enough seating for maybe 10 people, but it is very unassuming and quaint. It’s as cute as its name. The place is decorated like an English garden with vines all over the walls as well as bunches of fake grapes. There are some hanging lights and cool lanterns on the wall. The ceilings are made of old, pretty tin, which I think is a nice way to maintain the charm of an old building.

Their wine menu is on a chalkboard on the wall behind the bar, so I didn’t quite catch where all of the wines were from, but from what I do remember seeing, many of the wines were from Europe and California. Sweet Grapes has happy hour specials on some of their wines, but despite that I went with a full priced glass (which was only $8) of Gruner from Austria, since I have been wanting to try it for a while now. This was actually one of the most expensive wines on the list. Glasses were priced between $6 and $9! Incredible.

All I have to say is that if you do stop by Sweet Grapes, do yourself a favor and order this wine. It smelled like crisp green apples and tasted like white peach. It was a little grassy as well with a touch of sweetness. However, the glasses are a little on the small side. So much so that I automatically went to give my glass a good swirl and apparently it was too vigorous for the glass’s stature because some of the wine sloshed over the side. Whoops!

The bartender began to make some microwave popcorn, which smelled awesome. Too bad it wasn’t on the menu because not having a microwave myself, I almost consider it a delicacy and would have dived right in. Just as I was trying to remember what microwave popcorn tasted like, the bartender brought me a bowl! Eeee! I was probably entirely too excited than I should have been. After devouring every little morsel of popcorn, I looked up and found that there were little bowls of popcorn lined up on the bar. It’s the bar snack! A much better alternative than peanuts, if I do say so myself. My glass of Gruner tasted quite good with it. Does anyone have any other great suggestions for what pairs well with popcorn?

Sweet Grapes was a tucked away, neighborly bar, but it felt a little bit like a typical bar rather than a wine bar. Although as you can clearly tell, the popcorn was a huge plus. It is cute though! I give Sweet Grapes a rating of 3.4 out of 5 glasses.

I've emailed Squarespace about this inability to rotate pictures in a post. I'll have this right side up soon enough!

Note the spill from my vigorous swirl

I devoured half the bowl of popcorn before I realized I should take a picture