With many people bemoaning the closures of well-loved, long-time establishments lately, it is nice to see new places springing up to take their place in our hearts. Like Tannat Wine & Cheese. Tannat is the hot new wine bar you’ve never heard of…until now.
Opened in December 2017, Tannat took over a former razor store (the vagaries of questionable businesses in New York) in Inwood and is breathing new life into the neighborhood.
The small storefront, situated on Broadway, just a few blocks south of Dyckman, is the brainchild of business (and life) partners, William Emery and Sarah Goler. Billed as “Natural Wine & Rustic Cuisine,” their cute and clever watering hole is described as a cross between a wine bar and a farm to table restaurant. The pair further note that their wines can be summed up as “S.N.O.B.S.” given that they are S-ustainable, N-atural, O-rganic, B-iodynamic and S-mall Lot.
Will and Sarah are anything, but snobs. Rather, they are focused on simple ideas such as sustainable ingredients, fair practices and quality food and wine. To this end, they are working toward B-corp status for the business, which is named for a French grape variety (now finding a home in Uruguay). Yet, despite the name, the duo appear to be more inclined toward palindromes than toward Tannat itself, although it does garner a spot on the wine list, as evidenced by the inclusion of
TANNAT
wine & cheese
eseehc & eniw
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at the top of the food menu.
On our first visit, I kicked off the evening with a rosé sparkler, while hubby homed in on the Pét-Nat.* We eventually strayed into the Orange Wine # section, which offers not one, not two, but 3 or 4 orange wines! To accompany our wine choices, we tasted a variety of small dishes including a sea bass crudo with sun-dried tomato and a porridge that featured a unique, perennial (and hence, more sustainable) grain called Kernza (See: https://landinstitute.org/our-work/perennial-crops/kernza/ for more information on this great (but, sadly not gluten-free, grain.)
The menu changes daily depending upon what’s available in the market. Visiting on back to back evenings, I can attest to the variance. The selection includes local cheeses, meat boards and some interesting spreads such as a butternut squash spread we enjoyed during our date night.
While the emphasis is on fresh and seasonal ingredients, the menu does sport a few recurring dishes such as house made pickled vegetables and Pao de Queijo, a Brazilian cheese bread, touted on the menu as being addictive, but which, thankfully, is delicious, but not as dangerous as advertised ? The menu also includes a category called, “But I Shoulds,” listing several different chocolate truffles, making it hard to resist a small bite of dessert.
The sophisticated and well curated list of wines can be enjoyed by the “splash,” glass or bottle. Splashes are generally quite generous and permit customers to enjoy a wide range of wines rather than committing to a full glass of something. Moreover, with unusual wines from the Jura and Slovenia starring grapes such as Trousseau and Rkatsiteli from well-regarded producers, guests are invited to venture outside their comfort zone of Chardonnay, Merlot and Sauvignon Blanc. For the less vinous-inclined, Tannat also has a selection of beers.
For our second visit, we explored more food and shifted our attention to the reds, sampling a Turley Cinsault and Domaine Ouled Thaleb’s Syrocco – a Syrah from Morocco that was on special that evening due to the wine class they had taught earlier in the day. Visits three and four provided the opportunity to taste the KTW Rkatsiteli Qvevri from Georgia (the country, not the state), an orange wine fermented in a clay amphora and a sparkling Arneis from Piedmont producer, Malvira.
Tannat offers two happy hours (happy, happy!) Monday through Friday; first at 5:00-7:00 and then again from 11:00 PM to close (2:00 AM), during which customers receive a discount on full glass prices. Wine school classes are held on Saturdays from 3:00-5:00.
In addition to bar seating, couples and trios can sit along the banquette and tables that run parallel to the bar, while larger groups are more easily accommodated at the high-top tables in the front of the room.
Shuttling between the bar and tables throughout the night, Helen Pitkowsky is warm, welcoming and knowledgeable. The experienced hospitality professional was lured uptown for the role and seems to very much enjoy her new post (and presumably the shorter commute – she’s a WaHi gal).
As I sat watching her on a Friday night, Helen greeted many customers by name and even reminded two men sitting at the bar that they had met each other previously. Her sincerity and kindness greatly add to the bar’s atmosphere and instill a true neighborhood vibe. And while I hope to spend less time at the bar than Norm Peterson, I do aspire to be a regular here; Helen already knows my name. Cheers to Tannat!
*Pét-Nat (short for Pétillant-naturel) is a sparkling wine produced in a more ancient and rustic production method, with the wine bottled prior to the completion of primary fermentation, thus trapping the carbon dioxide (a by-product of alcoholic fermentation) in the bottle and producing an effervescent wine.
#Orange wines are those produced with white grapes that have had some skin contact, thereby infusing some color – an orange hue – and are often given some intentional exposure to air, thereby imparting an oxidative character to the wines.
Tannat
4736 Broadway
New York, NY 10040
Monday to Sunday: 5PM to 2AM