Messieurs and Mesdames, attention s’il vous plaît! In a few short weeks, New York will get its first bar with—wait for it—wine on tap! (If you could see me right now, you would be able to see that my grin is so big it’s hurting my face.)
To most wine connoisseurs, the recent New York Times article is nothing new. Wine on tap has been prevalent throughout Europe. And, the trend has already sprouted in the west coast from LA to SF. However, I’ve never witnessed wine on tap first hand. One, I was too young to be going to pubs by myself when I went through Europe or lived in California. Two, by the time I was old enough to enjoy bar-hopping, I followed the footsteps of my peers and drank a lot of beer and hard liquor (i.e. I thought drinking wine was for either pretentious snobs or very old retired people). And, now that I appreciate wine, I am very far from the wineries of Napa Valley or Europe.
Why am I so excited about wine on tap when I can get glasses of wine or even bottles of wine in any liquor store, Food Emporium, restaurant, etc. in NYC? To be honest, I’m not a wine connoisseur (at least, not yet), but I can still tell a fresh glass of wine from a stale one. As soon as a bottle of wine is opened, oxidation occurs. As a result, the taste from the last glass would inevitably fair worse than the first. That’s okay if you purchased a whole bottle. However, if you are like me and enjoy a simple cheap but nice glass of wine, then getting that first versus last glass will make all the difference. But with wine on tap, you bypass this problem. Since wine is kept in a wooden keg where gas (not oxygen) fills the keg as wine is poured out, the wine remains fresh. Thus, even the last glass is just as wonderful as the first!
So, in short, I am very excited about the opening of Daniel Boulud’s DBGB on Bowery in May where they will serve house red and house white on tap alongside the assortment of beer! (Don’t worry, I’ll follow-up with a review of both the bar and the concept.)
In the meantime, enjoy wine and save money (see WSJ’s “10 Ways to Save Money Ordering”).
•Reflections 1/22/10: 3 Interesting NYT Articles This Week
22 Jan2. Chilled by Choice - Justen Ladda (a sculptor in LES) and some others prefer to live in a house with no heat. Apparentely, all over America, certain people have opted to sacrifice “normal” comfort for… well… “thrift, environmentalism and a commitment to unique real estate.” Could I do it? Never. I am a mild-temperate creature that needs lives around ~70°F. I can’t stand heat and I can’t stand cold. Though I might be “economical” with my money, freezing my butt off in the middle of winter to maintain the “acoustics” of a real estate is just not in my blood.
3. The Balkan Burger Unites All Factions - For all you vegetarians out there, sorry, for this part of the post. For all you meat lovers, like me, this RIDICULOUSLY large (the size of a birthday cake) burger sounds AMAZING! This Balkan Burger, named “Pljeskavica”, is ”formed from ground meat and minced onion, pounded thin, then grilled on both sides to a smoky brown. The word pljeskavica comes from pljesak, a regional word for clapping the hands, the motion used to press the burger into a thin round.” Such a burger is found all over the Balkans. ”Depending on where you are in the Balkans, and the taste of the locals, the meat mixtures might be ruddy with paprika and served with fresh minced onions or cucumbers for crunch.” Where can you find them in NYC?
For ~$10:
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