Critics’ choice: Wine bars where food shares the limelight

Vino Vino Austin

So often, the problem with a great wine bar is dinner, said Matthew Odam in The Austin American-Statesman. When your party starts to get hungry, it’s time to leave. But in Austin, diners won a reprieve from that common irritation when popular Vino Vino added a full kitchen and went from being “a great wine bar with snacks to a great restaurant with an amazing wine list.” The makeover “has done nothing to change the relaxed and convivial environment” that patrons have loved since the spot’s 2006 opening. The combination of century-old wooden floors, warm lighting, and floor-to-ceiling wine racks gives the long, narrow room the feel of a storied neighborhood haunt, and diners are allowed to let their meals unfold “over an unrushed period of hours.” Vino Vino’s “incredible” mussels and fries pairs well with the Adriano Adami Garbel 13 prosecco, and the staff wisely recommended the pear and apple notes of the 2010 Gagliardo Fallegro when I wished to complement an entrée that turned out to be “one of the best chicken dishes I’ve had in recent memory.” The “ebullient” crowd seems to agree: This is a place you can treat like your own “extended parlor room.” 4119 Guadalupe St., (512) 465-9282

Society Fair Alexandria, Va.

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The creators of this 7,000-square-foot gourmet market have devised a lot of ways to draw people in, said Tom Sietsema in The Washington Post. Home cooks will appreciate the in-house butcher and the fruit vinegars from France. But celebrated chef Cathal Armstrong has also given visitors places to sit down and sample the wares, including a “whimsical” wine bar named the Royal Dublin Society, after a famous Irish exhibition hall. By day, this RDS serves sandwiches on house-baked breads, including a “dynamite” vegetarian option—a slather of ricotta on a baguette, dressed with kale and fennel. At night, you can sample the butcher’s boudin blanc—“poised on feathery mushrooms and sweet sautéed onions.” Meanwhile, Armstrong disciple Trey Massey is likely to be leading a cooking demonstration for a small group of customers, who might learn to quarter a duck before enjoying the dinner. “Equipped with a tiny microphone, a sly sense of humor, and deft knife skills, Massey makes an engaging host.” He’s also a perfect ambassador for an enterprise as committed to fun as it is devoted to food. 277 S. Washington St., (703) 683-3247

Row 14 Denver

“Row 14 is the kind of restaurant where you feel the city buzzing around you,” said Shari Caudron in 5280. Located between the convention center and the theater district, it provides its clientele with such a sleekly sparkling backdrop that “the simple act of sitting down at your table is accompanied by an uptick in energy.” Chef Jensen Cummings is a committed innovator. Start with one of 60 wines available by the glass, then move on to something a little daring from Cummings’s menu—like mac and cheese topped with Korean short ribs. Sometimes Cummings’s dishes can be “more interesting to read about than to eat.” But when he “does hit the sweet spot, the effect is downright sublime.” Don’t miss the rabbit with spinach-jalapeño purée if it appears as a special. It’s evidence that the food could soon be as good as the wine list and people-watching. 891 14th St., (303) 825-0100