Steph C.
Yelp
Matt B. and I spent our Sunday evening at Highland Park Wines, eating pizza and drinking wine with our friends and their baby (the baby didn't drink wine, but he did eat a surprising amount of spicy pizza). This wine shop is in the same little complex as Triple Beam Pizza, and there's some overlap in the ownership. Enough, anyway, that you can bring your pizza and dine in at HPW while enjoying good wine at retail prices.
The shop is attractive and welcoming and very hip, opened by the same people as Silverlake Wine, and definitely a powerful horseman in the gentrification apocalypse. (I overheard a white woman at the register commenting that Highland Park was like a mini Silver Lake, and it made me wince. I'm a total moth to the flame when it comes to precious trendy shops and restaurants, but like, people do know that Highland Park isn't just a yuppie theme park on short stretches of York and Figueroa, yes?) It boasts a huge, curated selection of wines from all over the world, with tons of options at every price point. They're beautifully arranged, easy to browse and just nice to look at, with bottles stacked like library books, in ten-foot-high shelving units. There's also a well stocked liquor section.
There's no seating in HPW--fair enough, as it is a wine shop, not a picnic hall--but we were able to set up camp at the back counter, which I'm guessing is used for wine tastings. The woman on staff was totally accommodating, and she helped us pick a couple of bottles to drink with our meals. Our friends are going to Sonoma soon, so we asked for Sonoma reds. She suggested the B. Kosuge 2015 Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir and the Pax Mahle Jet Set Jungle, a 2014 red blend. We took her recommendations, and she set us up with glasses and poured our first tastes. Both bottles were great, and they cost us like $55 total. Would've been much more expensive at any restaurant.
We had a lovely time here, and bought a few bottles to take home on our way out. This time, I got help from the man on staff (I think it was just the two of them Sunday), and he was also super nice and knowledgeable. We haven't gotten a chance to drink our purchases yet, but I have no doubt that they'll be delicious. Highland Park Wines is a wonderful store, a great resource for wine enthusiasts in this part of town.