{"id":252282,"date":"2017-10-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/wine-time-in-a-garden\/"},"modified":"2017-10-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-10-06T07:00:00","slug":"wine-time-in-a-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wine-time-in-a-garden\/","title":{"rendered":"Wine time in a garden"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hillcrest is home to San Diego\u2019s oldest wine bar<\/strong><\/p>\n

Por Frank Sabatini Jr.<\/p>\n

Back in 2000, when the notion of opening a bar that serves only wine was considered financially risky, longtime gay couple and world travelers Reuel Olin and Bob Grinchuk decided to take the gamble after returning from a trip to Paris.<\/p>\n

They were impressed by the city\u2019s \u201cunique civilization\u201d of wine bars and the myriad varietals and artisan cheeses they served.<\/p>\n

\"Wine
Old and New World wines fill the cubbies in Wine Lover\u2019s comfortable interior. (Foto por Frank Sabatini Jr.)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Months later, they purchased Waterloo Station, a dingy gay bar at 3968 Fifth Ave. in Hillcrest that had run its course. They renovated the space and turned it into The Wine Lover, adding a curvy marble-top bar, pinewood shelving and cherry wood cabinets to house an inventory of mostly California wines that were alien to cocktail bars.<\/p>\n

They soon added an adjoining patio to accommodate cigarette smokers disgruntled over California\u2019s ban on smoking inside of bars and restaurants.<\/p>\n

\"Wine
The Wine Lover is a quaint place for wine on Fifth Avenue in Hillcrest. (Foto por Frank Sabatini Jr.)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In no time, The Wine Lover became a novel departure for consumers seeking quieter and more sophisticated drinking establishments, ranking as San Diego\u2019s second wine bar at the time and the first in Uptown. (Predating it was The Grape, which opened Downtown in the late 1990s and shuttered several years ago.)<\/p>\n

Now under different ownership, The Wine Lover reigns as our city\u2019s oldest wine bar. It has also outlived others that came and went throughout Hillcrest, such as Wine Steals, The Wine Encounter, Jake\u2019s on 6th, and Crush.<\/p>\n

Helming the operation is sommelier Serge Chable, his brother Nick, and their mother Gini. The trio purchased the business in 2011 after Olin and Grinchuk moved to Palm Springs.<\/p>\n

Serge initially spent about nine months working for the couple as a wine tender while pursuing his level-2 sommelier certification through the Court of Master Sommeliers. Along the way, he helped them expand their inventory and organize onsite wine tastings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI started reaching out to more wine reps and bringing in a bigger selection of better wines,\u201d he said, adding that his wine knowledge originally took root from working in various front-of-the-house positions for Roy\u2019s restaurant, Donovan\u2019s Steak and Chop House, George\u2019s at the Cove and the former Cavaillon.<\/p>\n

Nick had also worked in the fine-dining industry and learned the ins and outs of selling wine to customers.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter my first day of helping to open Eddie V\u2019s as a server, Serge called to tell me there was an offer to buy The Wine Lover that we couldn\u2019t refuse,\u201d Nick said. \u201cSo I took the leap of faith and ended up working only one day at Eddie V\u2019s.\u201d<\/p>\n

The two brothers and their mom began making cosmetic changes to the business, focusing mostly on the patio.<\/p>\n

\u201cI used to have to beg people to sit out there,\u201d Serge said. \u201cThere were no tablecloths and most of the plants were fake.\u201d<\/p>\n

So in came black linens and a host of live flora growing from plant beds that run along three sides of the cozy patio, which is fronted by an equally quaint sidewalk patio. At night, colored uplights illuminate some the greenery, as the brothers send out low-volume tunes from playlists that don\u2019t exclude jazz and classic rock.<\/p>\n

\"Wine
The flora-filled patio is set back from the street at this Fifth Avenue wine bar in Hillcrest. (Foto por Frank Sabatini Jr.)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During the Christmas season, their mom takes the honors for elegantly decorating the patio and interior, the latter of which shows off artfully placed driftwood and handmade signs highlighting the wine selection.<\/p>\n

Under its previous ownership, The Wine Lover had a reputation for being pricey, whereby a bottle of chardonnay or zinfandel with a cheese plate might cost $50 or more. Visit now during late-night happy hour, which starts at 9 p.m., or any time after 5 p.m. on Fridays, and you can score a bottle of wine selected by the house plus a two-item cheese board with fruit, nuts, olives and bread for $35.<\/p>\n

The Wine Lover stocks nearly 200 labels from global regions by the bottle and offers about 35 choices by the glass. The selections change frequently.<\/p>\n

Bottles consumed on the premises or purchased to go generally cost between $25 and $40, but can climb as high as $200 for \u201ctrophy bottles\u201d from esteemed Napa Valley producers, such as Perry Moore and Beckstoffer\/Dr. Crane Vineyards.<\/p>\n

\u201cI look for the best wines I can get that are value-driven and buy straight from the wine makers \u2014 even for the European wines, which are half my inventory,\u201d Serge said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou learn something new every day about wine,\u201d Nick added. \u201cMy favorites since running The Wine Lover are Rhone blends, syrahs and grenaches. And I love crisp, clean European whites, too.\u201d<\/p>\n

The brothers admit that operating a wine bar is a labor of love.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe margins for wine are very short,\u201d Nick continued. \u201cYou\u2019re not going to buy Porsches and Ferraris from doing this. But me and Serge love to teach people about a wine they might want to drink for the next million days of their lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to meat and cheese boards, the food menu extends to bruschetta, a spinach-cranberry salad with goat cheese, and a chicken panini made with smoked poultry from Brazen BBQ Smokehouse a couple doors down.\"Wine<\/p>\n

Other specials and events throughout the week include: buy one bottle and get a second of equal or less value for 50 percent off on Tuesdays; sample \u201cback shelf\u201d wines on Wednesdays, when four-pour flights of the bar\u2019s higher-end inventory cost $17; and \u201chang with somm\u201d on Thursdays as customers get to pick the brains of Serge and the winemakers and purveyors he sometimes hosts.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2014Frank Sabatini Jr. es el autor de \u201cSecret San Diego\u201d (ECW Press), y comenz\u00f3 su carrera como escritor local hace m\u00e1s de dos d\u00e9cadas como miembro del personal del ex San Diego Tribune. Puedes localizarlo en <\/em>fsabatini@san.rr.com<\/em><\/a>.<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hillcrest is home to San Diego\u2019s oldest wine bar By Frank Sabatini Jr. Back in 2000, when the notion of opening a bar that serves only wine was considered financially risky, longtime gay couple and world travelers Reuel Olin and Bob Grinchuk decided to take the gamble after returning from a trip to Paris. They […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":252283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"Wine time in a garden","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11547,11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}