Chris C.
Yelp
I really wanted to love this place, and the space is great (albeit quite cold when I was there).
First of all, they don't open at 5, despite it saying that on their website, google, yelp etc.
Went to Trademark across the street for a quick beer and waited.
It never really had more than a few people, but it was a Monday night to be fair.
The wines are listed on a chalk board above the bar.
There was one bartender and service was surprisingly mediocre given it was fairly empty. He was busy doing prep it seemed or other things rather than look after customers.
I asked a question about the sparkling wine (Vouvray) and he said it was very dry, so I asked if it was Nature or Brut (Nature being very dry at less than 3 grams of residual sugar and almost too dry sometimes).
I had to explain to the bartender what that meant - in a wine bar.
Then I wanted a glass of red so asked what they had in a Meritage style (Meritage is an american trademark term that basically means blend and usually a Bordeaux style blend, most wineries have their own cute terms for their blends and don't pay for using the term Meritage).
Again, in a wine bar, I had to explain, then had to explain what grapes constitute a typical bordeaux.
I decided not to discuss wine any more in detail at this point.
There is no wine list other than what is on the board, but there are other wines.
The thing is some are for sale and some aren't, and customers aren't allowed to peruse the selection, so you sort of wait for him to grab something and then find out if it is for sale.
Lastly, they use square for payment. This isn't a home based business, get areal payment processor.