| rev:text
| - Calling this a "wine bar" is a bit of a misnomer. Yes, there is an extensive wine list, as well as other cocktails and even a reasonable selection of unusual bottled beer. However, this is more of a gourmet pizza and small plates restaurant than an actual "wine bar". The "bar" itself is pretty small and not separated in any way from the rest of the restaurant, which is overall tiny, loud, crowded and um, kinda ugly (white butcher paper covering cheap tables). I guess that's the "humble" part as my usual "wine bar" experience is something elegant, quiet and maybe a bit snobbish that would not be so popular in a down-to-earth place like Lakewood.
As happy as I am to have a decent restaurant centrally located in this strip of businesses - which have that miracle of miracles for Lakewood, an ample free parking lot (gasp!) in the back - I wonder why the proprietor did not seek to place his business in an actual vacant bar or restaurant, or at least in a space that could accommodate a LARGE bar and be quiet and spacious enough that you did not have to yell across a three-foot dinner table at your companion to be heard. This is not the place I'd go to enjoy a quiet, restful glass of wine or a drink of any sort. It's more on the order of happy hour in Ohio City.
I still give it four stars because once you get past the noise, the uncomfortable tables, and your internal image of a "wine bar" as something much more peaceful, the food and wine here are top notch. If your idea of a pizza is something with an excellent thin crust and ingredients that don't taste like they're loaded with sugar or came out of a can, then check this place out. You can watch them rolling out the pizza and see that the process here is more akin to trained chefs than to bored teens throwing some dough in an oven. There are also awesome charcuterie and cheese plates where you can sample all sorts of tasty hors d'oeuvres, spreads, nuts, meats and cheeses, and a selection of fancy desserts. The wine and other drinks are just the icing on the top of this most excellent cake. The wait staff are more professional than the norm for Lakewood, and they even have a selection of pizza, dessert and wine available for takeout.
Only reason I knocked off a star is the logistics of the dining room. As I noted above, during busy times it gets loud, crowded, and uncomfortable, and to make matters more annoying they usually don't take reservations and when you show up, if they are running a wait list, they have some policy of refusing to give you any idea of how long a wait you're looking at. They can't even seem to tell you if you're looking at, say, 15 minutes or an hour. I imagine this is to encourage you to go wait in the bar and spend money on their wine instead of going elsewhere, but when the restaurant is crowded the bar is not a real pleasant place to hang out (no room and very noisy). I would suggest looking through the large front windows upon arrival to see how busy the place is, and if it looks packed, go somewhere else. If you see empty tables, by all means go on in there and eat and drink.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)
![[cxml]](/fct/images/cxml_doc.png)
![[csv]](/fct/images/csv_doc.png)
![[text]](/fct/images/ntriples_doc.png)
![[turtle]](/fct/images/n3turtle_doc.png)
![[ld+json]](/fct/images/jsonld_doc.png)
![[rdf+json]](/fct/images/json_doc.png)
![[rdf+xml]](/fct/images/xml_doc.png)
![[atom+xml]](/fct/images/atom_doc.png)
![[html]](/fct/images/html_doc.png)