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	Photo: Lori Eanes

    The first wine bar in the United States—the London Wine Bar in San Francisco—opened in 1974. It took a couple of decades for similar cozy bistros—offering wines by the glass and accompanying appetizers and light meals—to explode on the New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco restaurant scenes, and only since May 2007 has the trend arisen in Oakland.
    We’re still light years behind Paris, where almost every neighborhood boasts an eccentric bar á vin where the owner pours his or her favorite wine from Sancerre, Loire, Bordeaux or Languedoc and plates up handcrafted cheeses and charcuterie plates, open-face sandwiches (tartines) and such classic comfort foods as coq au vin and boeuf bourguignon. But with the opening of Zza’s Enoteca, on Grand Avenue at the edge of Lake Merritt; Franklin Square Wine Bar, at Broadway and Grand Avenue; and Vine Wine Bar, on Lakeshore Avenue east of Lake Merritt, Oakland is staking out its place on the wine bar map.
    “There’s a momentum that’s happening in Oakland, with new residents and new businesses,” says Dennis Lapuyade, part owner and wine and spirits buyer for César, the Berkeley-bred small-plates pioneer that opened its Piedmont Avenue location in summer 2006. With a larger kitchen and an expanded menu offering larger plates, the new César is more of a full-service restaurant than its original Gourmet Ghetto tapas-bar incarnation. But like the 7-year-old À Côté on College Avenue in Rockridge, César retains certain qualities of the neighborhood wine bar, and Lapuyade is a well-qualified observer of the burgeoning scene.
    He worked at Singer and Foy in San Francisco in the late 1980s, when that wine shop broke new ground by offering in-store high-end wine-tasting events and helping ignite more consumer interest in wine. “The Hayes & Vine [wine bar] proprietors credited us with inspiring them when they opened [in 1991],” says Lapuyade, who points to a similar dynamic in the East Bay. The foundation for a wine bar movement has been laid by the growing number of urban winemakers and wine shops (such as Solano Cellars, Vintage Berkeley, the Wine Mine and Farmstead Cheeses and Wines) that host wine tastings, wine clubs and special events.
    César’s success is obviously a cornerstone, as well. “Over the years, we’ve given people the opportunity to taste a really broad range of things, and our list changes very frequently,” he says. “Oftentimes, people will come in and try something, and it won’t be there the next time, but there will be something else that they will discover. In a way, we’ve trained our customers to experiment, and that’s probably one of the things that I think is fueling the wine bar phenomenon. If you’re doing a wine bar, you’re going to draw people who are interested in experimenting, and it’s fun to show people what’s new, what’s odd, what’s different, what they like.”
    Lapuyade would welcome a scene with enough wine bars that each could focus on a region or varietal. “It would be great if one wine bar would specialize in Italian wine and another would specialize in California Zins or whatever, and you could do a crawl from place to place,” he says. For now, the Oakland wine bar crawl can be done in three stops, but each will be characterized by a unique ambience, cuisine and wine focus stemming from the owners’ and wine buyers’ personalities, tastes and business strategies.

Zza’s Enoteca

    When Regina Passalaqua and Lewis Canyon bought Zza’s Trattoria in 2005, the new lease required that they take over the storefront next door, which had previously separated the restaurant from its banquet room another door down. They came up with the idea for a wine bar and collaborated with a contractor to refashion the former furniture store into a warm, woody space that adjoins the bright, bustling trattoria but feels a world apart. “We’re low-key people ourselves,” says Passalaqua, a 20-year veteran of the restaurant business, “so we were going for an ambience that is simple and relaxed.”
    Its completion delayed by the birth of Passalaqua and Canyon’s daughter, Zza’s Enoteca opened at the end of May 2007. The minimalist decor of hard surfaces—a raw concrete floor that retains patterns from removed tiles, bulky wooden wine display shelves, a large communal table near the entrance, a plywood banquette along one wall opposite the glossy wooden bar with chair-backed stools—is softened by comfortable leathers and fabrics, large flower arrangements and down-lights illuminating local art on the walls and creating a congenial library glow. The front-window view of Lake Merritt’s east-end pergola and colonnade adds a pastoral feel.
    From the outset, Passalaqua delegated duties to a wine-buyer and chef. The original hires have since departed, but manager Katie Schoen and chef Rahsaan Fernandez have put their personal stamps on the place in ways that contribute to a sense of seamless coordination.
    Schoen had spent a year at Nectar Wine Lounge in San Francisco and a year and a half as a server at Bay Wolf, and honed her wine knowledge in a job with a San Francisco wine importer and distributor and, last fall, got hands-on experience during a harvest and crush. Her personal taste leans toward Old World Burgundies and sparkling wines, but when she’s buying for Zza’s, she manifests a global perspective, peppering the list of 50 or so wines with affordable and “a little more obscure” varietals “from far-off places—things you ordinarily wouldn’t see in California,” she says. So, on the same list where you’ll find a 2005 Bordeaux Merlot–Cabernet Sauvignon blend and a 2004 Sonoma Zinfandel, you can explore an organically grown 2003 Greek Agiorgtiko, a 2005 Malbec from Argentina or a 2006 Chenin Blanc from South Africa.
    Most wines at Zza’s are available by the 3-ounce taste, 6-ounce glass, or bottle, and customers are welcome to a splash before they commit. Prices for a glass (about ¹⁄³ the price of a bottle) start around $7 and top out at $15 or so; a taste runs slightly more than half the price of glass (and bottles can be purchased retail at 30 percent off the list price). Of Oakland’s three new wine bars, Zza’s is the only one that offers printed descriptions of each wine: The 2005 Château de Vaugaudry Chinon (100 percent Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley), for instance, is characterized as having “Great herbal nose touched with cigar leaf. Medium bodied and elegant, with fresh blackberry, silky tannins, good acidity. Blood orange and rosemary round out the finish.”
    “Having descriptions on the wine list is completely necessary,” Schoen says. “It tells a story and brings a personal touch.” Well-informed servers can offer further guidance. “Customers should be able to ask questions and get real answers,” says Passalaqua. “In our minds, that’s part of giving service,” and part of the effort to create a place where, Canyon adds, “anyone will feel comfortable, whether you know a lot or a little about wine.”
    The San Francisco Chronicle’s Michael Bauer recently noted that it’s getting harder to differentiate between a wine bar and a restaurant, and that certainly applies to Zza’s Enoteca. Chef Fernandez’ menu ranges from daily soups and simple salads through artisanal cheese plates to glazed lamb chops, eggplant Parmesan, white beans with smoked peppers and pancetta, lasagna layered with milk-braised pork, and five thin-crust pizzas. Prices range from $4 for a side of olives or almonds to $15 or $16 for free-range chicken crisped under a brick or a plate of handcrafted salumi.
    Although the wine bar offers trattoria customers a place to enjoy an appetizer and a taste of wine before passing through the velvet curtain to the restaurant next door, the welcoming ambience, enhanced by recorded jazz and world music, and occasional live performers, and the depth of the wine and food menus make the enoteca a dining destination on its own.
    Zza’s Enoteca 550 Grand Ave., (510) 839-9124 | www.zzaswinebar.com
Hours: 5 p.m.–10 p.m. Sun.–Tue., 5 p.m.–11 p.m. Wed.-Thu., 5 p.m.–midnight Fri.-Sat. | Wine focus: eclectic, international varietals | Food orientation: Rustic Italian and Mediterranean dishes with California flair | Special features: Happy hour 5 p.m.–7 p.m. Mon.–Fri., tasting flights, winemaker dinners, wine talks, live music | Planned additions: Outdoor seating

Franklin Square Wine Bar

    If Rick Mitchell could have put his original plan into play, Franklin Square Wine Bar would have opened three years ago instead of last October. “It was what I originally wanted to do,” says the proprietor of Luka’s Taproom & Lounge at the corner of Broadway and Grand Avenue. “I wanted to open up something in my neighborhood, ideally on Lakeshore or Grand, that would be small enough to be manageable for a first-time restaurateur—something that brought together all the different aspects of the wine bars that I’d been to in my life in San Francisco, New York and Paris.”
    But the first space that became available was the site of the old Hofbrau, an Oakland landmark for more than 50 years. “But it was way too big for a wine bar, so I hooked up with Jacob Alioto, my chef, and did Luka’s,” says the former tax accountant. “But pretty much since day one we’ve always thought we’d circle back and do a wine bar.”
    Tucked into a line of storefronts angling off Broadway across the street from Luka’s, Franklin Square joins Luka’s at the leading edge of Oakland’s Uptown social scene. A long banquette runs the length of one wall opposite the concrete-topped bar that leads to a tiny, partially open kitchen at the rear. Light green and blue paint, decorative metalwork, and a blue neon “Wine Bar” sign give the narrow room a modern, airy feel.
    Mitchell’s original vision of a simple wine-led watering hole was inspired by Paris’ classic Le Tartine, as well as the many wine-and-panini bars that have sprouted up in New York City. “Stuff on bread and lots of great wine,” he summarizes. But his chef’s grander scheme prevailed, and Franklin Square has veered closer to what Mitchell describes as Paris’ “newer chic places, with expensive and challenging food that is an art in itself. Jacob has always pushed to have finer, more challenging food.”
    Snacks (olives, almonds, Parmesan flatbread, $2-$3), French-inspired sandwiches and tartines ($6–$12), are available at both lunch and dinner, but Alioto’s hand is evident in the variety of salads (tuna confit and arugula, Waldorf chicken salad) and small plates (saffron risotto, pan-seared fois gras, roasted quail, house-made boudin blanc, pot au feu en croûte) priced from $6 to $15.
    The wine list, which offers full bottles, 500 ml carafes, 150 ml (about 5-ounce) glasses and 75 ml half-glass tastes, hinges on Mitchell’s preference for French and California Burgundy-style varietals—“lighter, more elegant wines, Pinot Noirs”—but among the three wines available by the glass are Viognier, Chenin Blanc, Gewurztraminer, Reisling, Cabernet Sauvignon, Rhône varietals and Zinfandel, plus a rosé and a few sparkling and fortified wines. Half-glasses start at $3.50, glasses range from $7 to $15 and bottles peak around $90.
    Savvy servers can answer most any question posed about the fruit of the vine, but wine pedagogy is not one of Mitchell’s priorities. “We do want it to be little bit more mature than Luka’s, but we wanted to hold on to that convivial spirit,” he explains. “so it’s not like a museum of wine where everybody sits silently.”
    When it opened, Franklin Square didn’t offer tasting flights. “I’m happy to pour you a taste and talk about the wines, but I didn’t want to do flights,” Mitchell says. “It’s back to that museum-of-wine thing. But people demanded it. They want to sit down with three different wines that have something in common so they can learn about them and think about them and take notes. Within minutes of launching the flights, we had five of them out on the tables.” Now he keeps four flights on the menu, two white and two red. “If people want to learn about wine, that’s great,” he says. “I think we have awesome wines that you can learn from.”
    Mitchell has also come around to an optimistic view of his Uptown neighborhood. “I was very skeptical when we moved in here and everyone talked about how there was going to be all this development,” he says. “But it’s been great.” He points to the Broadway Grand condos across the street from Luka’s, the opening of Flora, the impending arrival of new branches of Ozumo (from San Francisco) and Bakesale Betty (from the Temescal neighborhood) and the long-awaited refurbishment of the Fox Theater. “That will be amazing. I’m not skeptical anymore. It’s exceeded my expectations,” he says, adding that he and Alioto hope to put a steakhouse into the neighborhood and uncork wines from the secret stash of library Pinot Noirs that he occasionally dips into for Franklin Square regulars who are willing to pay top dollar. “But our bread and butter will always be selling affordable wine to the local folks.”
    Franklin Square Wine Bar 2212 Broadway, (510) 451-4677 | www.fswinebar.com
Hours: 11 a.m.–11 p.m Mon.–Fri., 5:30 p.m.–11 p.m. Sat. | Wine focus: Burgundy-style varietals | Food orientation: Tartines, salads and French-inspired small plates | Special features: Winemaker dinners, tasting flights | Planned additions: Outdoor seating, summer live jazz series

Vine Wine Bar

    Chris Williams is a numbers man. In conversation, he can quantify almost anything. Take the way he talks about his methodology for selecting the wines poured at Vine, the newest in Oakland’s crop of wine bars. “I have a team of 10 people who taste the wines,” he says. “Everyone has a different palate, but if 10 of us decide it’s a wine to buy, mostly likely 80 percent of the people who try it will like it as well, whether they know wine or not.”
    So it adds up that the former investment banker should be the first Oakland wine bar owner to install Enomatic wine-dispensing machines. Although they don’t physically dominate the spectacularly remodeled storefront on Lakeshore Avenue, which opened the first week of January, the two high-tech devices are pivotal to Vine’s wine program and vibe. You purchase a “tasting card” ($20 minimum) and slide it into one of the slots in either of the two Enomatics (the column stand-alone machine holds 16 reds, the flat wall-mounted machine holds six whites and two sakes), push a button to choose the wine you want to taste, hold your glass under the spout to receive the 1-ounce pour and remove your card after the machine has deducted the price of a taste (from $1 to $6.50).
    The machines inject inert nitrogen into the bottles, replacing the air that causes oxidation once a bottle has been opened. Theoretically, this allows a bottle to remain open for weeks, and Vine is thus able to offer tastes of wines that they sell only by the bottle for prices ranging up to $120 for 2004 Pahlmeyer or Sullivan Merlots.
    “It’s a nice feature, like a candy machine for adults,” says Vine’s operations manager John Fabela. “Not a lot of people are doing it, so it’s something that helps make us unique. It gives people a chance to try things they might not normally be able to afford, to get a taste without breaking the bank.”
    Unlike Zza’s and Franklin Square, Vine doesn’t offer tasting pours from its regular wine list—only 4-ounce glasses ($7–$17) and full bottles. But servers will grant a taste or two to help customers decide what to order. The selections bear such names as Bonny Doon, Saintsbury, Shannon Ridge, Plumpjack, D Cubed, Robert Craig, Dharma, JC Cellars and Old Ghost. “We’re specializing in California boutiques,” says Fabela. “We don’t want wines you can find at Trader Joe’s or in the supermarket. We go with limited-case production—most of them are under 500 cases—so you’re not likely to find them anywhere else, and we might not be able to
get them more than once or twice.”
    “That’s our niche,” adds Williams, who became a wine buff when he financed vineyards for 16 years as a banker and helmed his own wine club, which ran out of places to meet when membership grew to 600. “We find it’s a great market because we are the only ‘California wine’ wine bar in California.”
    A totally hands-on entrepreneur, Williams oversaw Vine’s dramatic interior design, from concrete floor to open-rafter ceiling. An exposed brick wall on one side, a gigantic impressionistic painting of wine bottles on the opposite wall, strategically placed oak Cabernet and Merlot barrels and dark brownish-burgundy leather banquettes and ottomans all contribute to the “boutique winery” feel Williams was after. Meanwhile, a narrow granite bar down the middle of the room, an angled bar at the back, low silver-trimmed cocktail tables and a soundtrack of techno and smooth jazz create a sleek, postmodern lounge vibe. Sakes, dessert and sparkling wines, draft and bottle beers, and specialty wine cocktails are all available, too.
    That Vine is more of a hip hang than a dining establishment is reinforced by the relatively spartan food program. The 13-item menu is a hodgepodge of salads, sashimi, carpaccio, prawn cocktails and fruit, veggie, cheese and charcuterie plates. But Williams and Fabela planned to add a half-dozen panini and fresh shellfish (mussels, clams, oysters and crab) by mid-March.
    Ambitious plans seem second nature to Williams, who speaks enthusiastically about pumping up the music (live jazz on Tuesdays, Brazilian bands on Thursdays, deejays on Fridays and Saturdays) and presenting Wednesday wine-tastings with guest vintners and special events for wine club members. “And we may open up two more wine bars in other areas,” he adds. “We’re looking at places right now.”
    Vine Wine Bar 3343 Lakeshore Ave., (510) 444-8463 | www.vinewinebar.net
Hours: 5 p.m.–11 p.m. Tue.–Thu., 5 p.m.–1 a.m. Fri.-Sat., 5 p.m.–10 p.m. Sun. | Wine focus: Boutique California varietals | Food orientation: Eclectic appetizer-style small plates | Special features: Wine-dispensing machines, guest vintner tasting series, live music | Planned additions: Menu expansion, loft seating, Sunday brunch, lunch