Bar à Vin Reviews

The ambiance is amazing. It's laid back and relaxing. The pizza's are so good and the pricing is just right.

It seems that we are incredibly lucky in Salt Lake City and surrounding environs in that a new restaurant or two pop up every day. We are amidst a sea of places to eat, drink and be merry. In this vast sea of dining opportunities, it's always nice when there is something unique that is not only different, but innovative and so interesting that you'd want to keep going back again and again. Bar a Vin is that place for me. As you walk in the sparse, modernist space, the first thing you see is a wall of lighted coolers and bottle after bottle of wine. All standing at attention, labels forward and begging for your attention. Pick me! Pick me! they seem to be saying. As someone who enjoys wine, that is often the biggest downside to imbibing. I usually go with what I know I already like, which means I'm seldom able to drift into my explorative side. Basically, unless I am at a tasting room, I don't want to order multiple glasses of wine, sample them and then drink them and try to find my way home (no wine left behind, I always say). Yes, it works in a tasting room environment because the amounts are kept to a minimum and that's exactly what Bar a Vin is and why it's so cool. The big wall of wine is a distribution system that allows the barkeep - Kimo at our visit - to pour one, three or five ounces pours at the push of a button. This means that when I found a particular wine I really liked in my Italian-themed Fuggetaboutit flight, I could order an additional three ounce pour to enjoy more fully. It also meant that when I thought the white from the Piedmont region tasted quite similar to a Hungarian tokai, I could order a one ounce Hungarian tokai to use as a reference sample to compare the two. It was really enjoyable and if you're an oenophile, you'll probably spend a ton of time here, asking Kimo a ton of questions and getting a ton of great answers, as he's really quite knowledgeable, especially when it comes to California reds. Bar a Vin is a place to explore and while the wines are big stars here, one cannot overlook the food. After all, nothing pairs better with food than wine and wine with food. In Bar a Vins case, not only have they curated an exceptional group of wines, they've also landed one of the best chefs anywhere for their kitchen. Who better to make sure you get the right flavors to bring out the smallest details in a wine than the award winning chef Jerry Liedtke? Yes, you know him from the Tin Angel and several other incredible places and he's creating some exceptional offerings to match nicely with the wines. From artisanal pizzas to a creamy feta dip that is to die for. I'm told that the menu is expanding and wines are always being added to keep things interesting. Bar a Vin is an island in Utah's inland dining sea and I could happily be marooned here for a long, long time.