Tag Archives: San Francisco

Review of Urban Tavern, restaurant in San Francisco

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Review of the bar: Urban Tavern in San Francisco
Restaurants / Bars connected to hotels are not generally known for their extensive wine collection. Generally the bigger boys can be seen lining the shelves—Beringer, Coppola, Gallo (gasp!). And the waiters seem to know as much about wine as the vodka. Sommeliers are only a distant word and the stemware is about a big to hold a shot of wine, versus as standard size pour. Then their is Urban Tavern in San Francisco, connected directly to the Hilton off of Union Square.
San Franciscans, take note. This is one of the cooler happy hour discounts in the city. From 3:30 – 5:30, all wines by the glass are 1/2 off. Yes, half off! Upon discovering the discount in the hotel’s elevator, we (I was staying with my sister who was in SF on business) threw our bags into the room and quickly headed downstairs. Let the drinking begin.
It only seemed to get better from there on out. I was expecting to, as mentioned before, get the run-of-the-mill collections, topped off with some “house wines” to bout. However I was shocked, and quite happy, when I opened up the wine menu.
Now I should explain that the wines-by-the-glass list was not miles long. It consisted of only 13 wines— 3 sparkling, 5 whites and 5 reds. But here it is about quality, not quantity. Even with only a bakers dozen to choose from, I was still a kid in the candy store.
There were actually wines—beyond Napa Valley! And to make it even sweeter, they offered 3oz pours, so you could easily do a flight of wine for half off. Too cool!
I started off with the Blanc de Blanc Sparkling wine from Iron Horse, which is located in the Russian River area (and a mighty cool tasting room I might add). The crispness and acidity was a perfect start to the afternoon. Along with that one, I ordered a 3oz pour of the albariño by Havens. Havens was the first winery to plant the grape in the Napa Valley, near the southern end. The wine was equally refreshing with a semi-crisp taste, with ripe lemons and honeydew. One a hot day, wine wines drink so easily.
Yet I couldn’t stop there. I had to do one more glass before the stroke of 5:30 hit to ensure we got the 1/2 off discount. Looking at the reds, I chose the Fort Ross Pinot Noir “Sea Slopes”. Fort Ross has one of the best regions for growing Pinot Noir, with their grapes sitting along the ocean-facing side of Sonoma Mountain. Linda Schwartz, winemaker, has other Pinots that contain a hint of Pinotage—and while  I couldn’t notice it in the wine, I’m curious to see if this one had any. Hmmm
Other wines worth mentioning was the Quivira Zinfandel (vineyard designation not available), the 06 Grignolino by Heitz, the 07 Edelzwicker by Navarro and the 06 Chardonnay by Benzinger.
Great wines for great prices. What could be better than that? Overall a wonderful expeirence at Urban Tavern in San Francisco. The next time you’re near Union Square and have a inseasable appetite for splendid wine and it just so happens that the time is anywhere between 3:30 to 5:30, I’d recommend a stop over. You’re bound to try a wine you’ve never tried, or even never heard of before, and come way smiling both from the wine and from the financial side.
Cheers,
Haydn

Urban_Tavern_imageReview of the bar: Urban Tavern in San Francisco

Bar: Urban Tavern, San Francisco
Location: 333 O’farrell St., San Francisco (map)
Website: urbantavernsf.com

Restaurants / Bars connected to hotels are not generally known for their extensive wine collection. Generally the bigger boys can be seen lining the shelves—Beringer, Coppola, Gallo (gasp!). And the waiters seem to know as much about wine as the vodka. Sommeliers are only a distant word and the stemware is about a big to hold a shot of wine, versus as standard size pour. Then their is Urban Tavern in San Francisco, connected directly to the Hilton off of Union Square.

San Franciscans, take note. This is one of the cooler happy hour discounts in the city. From 3:30 – 5:30, all wines by the glass are 1/2 off. Yes, half off! Upon discovering the discount in the hotel’s elevator, we (I was staying with my sister who was in SF on business) threw our bags into the room and quickly headed downstairs. Let the drinking begin.

It only seemed to get better from there on out. I was expecting to, as mentioned before, get the run-of-the-mill collections, topped off with some “house wines” to bout. However I was shocked, and quite happy, when I opened up the wine menu.

Now I should explain that the wines-by-the-glass list was not miles long. It consisted of only 13 wines— 3 sparkling, 5 whites and 5 reds. But here it is about quality, not quantity. Even with only a bakers dozen to choose from, I was still a kid in the candy store.

There were actually wines—beyond Napa Valley! And to make it even sweeter, they offered 3oz pours, so you could easily do a flight of wine for half off. Too cool!

I started off with the Blanc de Blanc Sparkling wine from Iron Horse, which is located in the Russian River area (and a mighty cool tasting room I might add). The crispness and acidity was a perfect start to the afternoon. Along with that one, I ordered a 3oz pour of the albariño by Havens. Havens was the first winery to plant the grape in the Napa Valley, near the southern end. The wine was equally refreshing with a semi-crisp taste, with ripe lemons and honeydew. One a hot day, wine wines drink so easily.

Yet I couldn’t stop there. I had to do one more glass before the stroke of 5:30 hit to ensure we got the 1/2 off discount. Looking at the reds, I chose the Fort Ross Pinot Noir “Sea Slopes”. Fort Ross has one of the best regions for growing Pinot Noir, with their grapes sitting along the ocean-facing side of Sonoma Mountain. Their Pinot was beautiful, and smooth on the palate. They gave the red the appropriate “wine-chill” on the Pinot which seemed to make it that much more desirable.

Other wines worth mentioning was the Quivira Zinfandel (vineyard designation not available), the 06 Grignolino by Heitz, the 07 Edelzwicker by Navarro and the 06 Chardonnay by Benzinger.

Great wines for great prices. What could be better than that? Overall a wonderful expeirence at Urban Tavern in San Francisco. The next time you’re near Union Square and have a inseasable appetite for splendid wine and it just so happens that the time is anywhere between 3:30 to 5:30, I’d recommend a stop over. You’re bound to try a wine you’ve never tried, or even never heard of before, and come way smiling both from the wine and from the financial side.

Cheers,
Haydn

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Haydn Adams is the author of the book, Wineries Beyond Napa Valley: Dry Creek and Alexander Valley, an insider’s tasting guide to the hidden gems region. He also contributes to the Beyond Napa Valley Wine Blog, writes for vinvillage.com, and can be found roaming the hills of Sonoma County looking for the next hidden gems. You can contact him at haydn@beyondnapavalley.com

Review of Cav Wine Bar, San Francisco- by Haydn

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cav-wine-barHaydn’s Review of Cav Wine Bar in San Francisco
May 26, 2009 | Beyond Napa Valley Wine Blog

Haydn’s Synopsis- Good geography of wine, with bottles ranging from Argentina to Greece. However overall quality, service and wine faux pas trumped the world wide wine range.

I was a bit intrigued when I received the call from a good friend of mine to check out Cav Wine Bar in San Francisco. Sight and review unseen, I dashed out of Marin, found a parking spot close by on Gough St., and hopped on in.

It’s a bit small but yet still fairly cozy inside. The ambient noise was a bit louder than it should of been, and the person across the table kept asking us to repeat ourselves due the fact that she was situated right underneath the table. The music was more hip hop, and upbeat—not generally found inside of a wine bar, but to each is their own. All the nuances aside, I was here for the wine.

My party already selected a bottle from their visual menu, aka wines on a shelf when you walk in. While that is fine for visual appeal, I’d be concerned with overall storing temperatures. The room was quite warm and I’d be afraid that they might overcook their bottles on a hot day. For my party, visual appeal did win out and the wine of choice was selected on what was displayed on the label.

The slightly overcooked Italian wine

I’ve picked wines simply by cool designs so I’m all in favor of that direction. The wine that was selected was the Trimpilin from Italy. It was a red blend of some sort, my guess being Sangiovese dominant. However, all the label said was “rossa” or red in Italian, which meant no single varietal pushed past 75%. The wine did open up a bit over a good 15-20 minutes, but it still lacked a great deal of structure.

The wine displayed a very minerally nose with a bit of dark fruit. The bottom dropped out on the mid-palate and I had to take another sip just to figure out what exactly was going on. After a few sips, the blackberry and strawberry components began to shine forth. However it didn’t last long and it quickly faded into the sunset. It was not that pleasant to drink, and I’d have to wonder if too much sun got into this bottle and did a little damage to it. Overall a fruit bomb.

I also had a sherry to go with a chocolate dessert. On par with what a Sherry should  taste like, but nothing to rave over.

The wine menu at Cav Wine Bar

The wines did range far and wine across this world, and I have to give them props for selecting such a diverse collection of wine. Unfortunately, they could have selected done a better job of selecting varietals from appropriate growing regions. With advances in technology, one could probably grow Chardonnay in Iceland (they may already do that, but don’t quote me), but I’d easily go for one coming out of Santa Ynez Valley. I felt they could have maximized on their world wine wine picking and really found wines that were the apex of the region.

A really great (and at the same time could be confusing) part of the menu was that they listed the blends seperately on the wine menu. It’s helpful if you know what the blend is (like a Syrah, Granache, Mouvédre is a Rhone style blend), but on the other hand, it could be difficult to figure it out if you are new to blends. The description next to the grapes in the wine helped out a little, but not as much as it could have.

They did have a few good bottles, but you’d really have to know what you were looking for to figure them out.

Overall feel

Cav Wine Bar has a lot of potential to be a great wine bar. And from a bigger perspective, one might see it as that. But from the waiter pouring more wine into my glass before I had finished it (so not cool in my book, especially at a wine bar), to the lack of Bordeauxs on the menu (please, just one, that’s all I ask), compared to the overflowing Beaujolais (which should be served slightly chilled, compared to the wines sitting on the shelf getting a tan).

The service was mediocre and the food was average, nothing to write home about. I feel they are trying to be “cool” and resting on their “Top 100″ restaurant listing in the Chronicle. Yet,  you’re only as good as your previous meal served and that could have been my last. I might go back to try a few of their wines, but in no way was I blown away from the food served. I appreciated the diversity in geography of their wines, but I’d rather have 10 top-notch wines from 3 or 4 well-renowned growing regions than 10 wines from 10 regions that can simply grow wine. And please, please—store the wines properly.

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Haydn Adams is the author of the book, Wineries Beyond Napa Valley: Dry Creek and Alexander Valley, an insider’s tasting guide to the hidden gems region. He also contributes to the Beyond Napa Valley Wine Blog, writes for vinvillage.com, and can be found roaming the hills of Sonoma County looking for the next hidden gems. You can contact him at haydn@beyondnapavalley.com