I'm always excited to see a new venue that serves a variety of wines by the glass. So when I heard of Cav, I was immediately interested in trying it out. When I discoverd that a few friends of mine were charter investors in the wine bar, I became even more curious and hopeful that it would be the kind of place that might serve as a future destination for a wine offline.
Here's my report:
1 WINE AND CORKAGE:
The good news is: There's no corkage.
The bad news is: Cav's policy is NO BYOB.
We were accompanied that night with the investors who inquired as to whether we could pay a corkage and open a bottle of wine that I had brought. The answer we got was: "We don't allow that. You wouldn't bring bread to a bakery."
Well, I think you know my opinion about that. Isn't that what corkage is for?
Cav carries a number of wines and prides itself on carrying wines that are a bit eccentric and not your average wine shop find. I was hard pressed to find producers that I recognized, but oddly enough, I found one, I was not familiar with the wine. For instance, they had a Firriato offering, but offered the much lighter Chiaramonte, rather than the heavy hitting Ribeca of the Firriato portfolio. Perhaps the thought was the Chiaramonte was a more versatile wine, given the eclectic menu.
Also, when we inquired as to the vintage of the Tori Mar, we were told it was the 2003, but we received the 2004. Perhaps it was simply too busy a night, but then again, when at a bakery, sometimes you get rye when you ask for wheat bread, eh?
2. THE FOOD
The food here comes in two sizes, a smaller serving (tapas style) and a larger serving for more of an entree portion. Our lineup included the fried smelts with a tasty aioli-nice, as far as smelts go, oxtail cavatelli-very tasty, brussel sprouts and mustard-an interesting and novel preparation, game hen with preserved lemon-a bit too charred for my taste, cornmeal french fried yams-excellent, butter squash gratin-nice, but lacking a "wow" factor, risotto cake with mushroom-I think we found the "wow" factor.
3. AMBIANCE
Done in somewhat of a minimalist industrial feel with hard walls yieldng loud acoustics. The backroom dining area is a bit dark and not particularly memorable. It can get quite loud in the bar at the height of the evening.