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There
are two things to keep in mind when you go to Vintage
New York WineBar in SoHo. They are: Finger Lakes Riesling
and Long Island Merlot. Stick with them, and you can't
go wrong. This week-old cafe is around the corner from
Vintage New York, a shop that sells wines only from, New
York State. The cafe is madly stylish, with mustard-and-white
walls, a communal table filled with chattering SoHo-ites
and a central twostory tower stacked with bottles. The
short menu is a list of small but by no means too-small
plates, all of them made of ingredients from guess where,
and all of them so reasonably priced that you may well
spend more on wine than you do on food. (The goal, obviously,
is to get you to try and buy the wine.)
If
you remember co-owner Susan Wine's restaurant, the Quilted
Giraffe, you won't be surprised to learn that the food
here is good. After nibbling on roasted almonds ($3) and
olives ($4), we shared duck meatballs with sweet and-hot
Thai sauce ($9), a fat artichoke whose leaves we dipped
in horseradish mayo ($9) and a Spanish tortilla, or frittata,
that was baked in a thin pastry crust ($5). Two paninis
were warm and crunchy in their flattened ciabatta rolls;
we had both the vegetarian version filled with sheep's
milk Camembert, mango chutney and roasted red peppers
($7) and the heftier one filled with slices of peppery
venison sausage and touissant cheese ($8). And if a salad
of duck confit and pistachio nuts ($10) sounds over-thetop
rich, what would you say to "Chocolate Fantasy,"
a warm chocolate souffle into which the cook drops a big
scoop of mocha ice cream?
This
is a terrific first-date restaurant. Not only will it
display your total coolness, but your meal can be as long
or short as your relationship promises to be.
Irene
Sax
Vintage New York WineBar, 482 Broome St., at Wooster
St., (212) 226-9463. All cards. Daily from 5 p.m. to midnight.
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