St Tropez West Village

"The wine list at St. Tropez is exclusively French, with some bargains if you look carefully, including good glasses of Bordeaux, white or red, at modest prices. The food is Provençale, running from charcuterie to full-plate meals. The frisee salad has more bacon than expected, while the crevettes a l’aioli (grilled shrimp with tarragon mayo) are creamy excellence on a plate." - Robert Sietsema

"When you’re meeting someone for the first time, you don’t want a shoulder-to-shoulder bar where you have to shout about how your roommates are fine but you can’t wait to get your own place. St Tropez is a little French spot in the West Village where you get your own table and order small plates as you go, making a quick exit that much easier." - team infatuation

"Just as it’d be strange if Texas Roadhouse didn’t serve chicken fried steak, it’d be odd if St Tropez didn’t serve rosé. The beachside city is in Cotes de Provence, and while this West Village wine bar doesn’t have views of yachts cruising up the French Riviera, it does offer wines made on vineyards that have those views." - matt tervooren

"On the surface, Kiki’s seems like a great choice for early-in-the-game dates. The problem is, spending 90 minutes making small talk waiting for a table before you have to spend another 90 minutes making small talk eating dinner is probably not your ideal scenario. St Tropez is a West Village wine bar that, like Kiki’s, has shareable small plates, affordable wine, and plenty of people-watching to help smooth lulls in the conversation. But unlike Kiki’s, this place takes reservations." - bryan kim, matt tervooren

"St Tropez is the perfect place to go if you have a first date in the West Village and want to seem like the sort of person who reads books and has concrete plans for retirement. It’s a wine bar with floor-to-ceiling windows and plenty of little tables where you can sit with a date, and they serve some solid French small plates as well. Have an order of meatballs with whatever you’re drinking. The entire wine list is French, and there are some relatively affordable options if you don’t feel like spending your utilities budget on fermented grapes." - Bryan Kim, Katherine Lewin, Neha Talreja, Carina Finn Koeppicus