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Bar review: Sip in New Port Richey is cozy with live jazz, old-timey vibe

 
CHRIS URSO   |   Times Kris Bolster, owner of Sip, pours a beer from one of 10 craft beers on tap Saturday, Aug. 25, 2018 in New Port Richey. The bar, which features a generous selection of wine, craft beers and coffee, has been in business for close to two years.
CHRIS URSO | Times Kris Bolster, owner of Sip, pours a beer from one of 10 craft beers on tap Saturday, Aug. 25, 2018 in New Port Richey. The bar, which features a generous selection of wine, craft beers and coffee, has been in business for close to two years.
Published Aug. 30, 2018

Here's a pitch that I'm buying: a quaint craft beer and wine bar that features live jazz and plays classic movies from the '50s and '60s on a big screen.

In New Port Richey, where options have traditionally been limited, a concept like this is a particularly fresh entry into the city's burgeoning downtown bar scene. New York transplants Lisa and Kris Bolster opened Sip two years ago just off Main Street, and have since sold locals on the bar's vibe.

The New Port Richey grapevine doesn't extend into my neighborhood in St. Petersburg, so I have to do some online digging, scouting for new bars via social media and online review sites. That's where I found Sip, with reviews snippets ranging from "New Port Richey's hidden gem" to "the absolute best thing to ever happen to downtown New Port Richey." How could I resist?

Located in a century-old building on Grand Boulevard, Sip is small, cozy and warm, like local coffee shops used to be before the trend switched to barren, minimalist environments. Indeed, Sip serves a range of quality coffee and tea drinks, along with a nice selection of beer and wine and some small plates to snack on as you, well, sip.

Among the gray walls and brown laminate flooring is an assortment of funky decor and antique furniture: a collection of board games atop an old wooden chest, tabletops supported by spent whiskey barrels, vintage beer and wine advertisements and even a massive floor-to-ceiling metal billboard for Old Stagg bourbon that's nearly as old as the building itself.

There are a few quotes inscribed on various fixtures throughout the bar, from noteworthy names such as Benjamin Franklin and Sid Vicious. It's a bit eclectic.

I visited on a Thursday, which is when the resident jazz duo Wayne and Dan perform. Typically, this is a bass and sax deal, but I lucked out and a local vibraphone player was sitting in. Vibraphone-fueled jazz is my jam. I enjoyed pretending like I was in the nightclub scene of the proto-nouvelle vague masterpiece Bob le Flambeur — a seedy gambler-slash-criminal enjoying a glass of wine and plotting as the band plays on in the background.

Speaking of the classics, there's a little seating area in the back with sofas and lounge chairs positioned around a projector screen perpetually showing old movies. If the excellent band didn't seal the deal, the 1963 Audrey Hepburn vehicle Charade certainly did.

Closer to the entrance, there is a small bar with multicolored stone siding, featuring no less than 35 wines, all available by the glass (and most by the bottle, too), as well as 10 rotating beers on tap and a half-dozen cider varieties from Washington's Locust Cider.

The beer selection is mostly local, featuring breweries like Green Bench, HoB Brewing, Coppertail, Florida Avenue, Big Top, Motorworks, Tampa Bay Brewing Company and Barrel of Monks (almost local; they're based in Boca Raton). When I visited, TBBC's Last Days of Summer was on tap adjacent to Southern Tier Pumking, a symbolic changing of the seasons.

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The beer list is strong, but the wine selection is the highlight. The globe-trotting selection takes the adventurous wine drinker from California to Chile, Italy, South Africa and New Zealand, with several stops in between.

There are some unusual wines on the list, like Jacob's Creek cabernet sauvignon from Australia, aged in bourbon barrels; or Cooper & Thief sauvignon blanc from California, aged in tequila barrels. There are some ports, and even Lillet, served on the rocks.

You won't find them on the menu, but the bar also stocks a few wine-based faux liquors, used to craft Prohibition-style cocktails for private parties that have reserved the secret speakeasy room. Oh, did I forget to mention the fact that Sip has a 1920s-themed parlor hidden behind a secret door in the back? Well, it does. (Ask to check it out when you visit.)

For such a small and seemingly simple bar, there's a heck of a lot to work with at Sip. If it were located somewhere like St. Pete or Tampa, it could quickly become overcrowded and lose its cozy charm. But it's a great fit for New Port Richey, and another sign of the city's downtown revitalization. If this is the kind of thing I'm going to find by long-hauling it north on U.S. 19, then you can count me in.

— Contact Justin Grant at jg@saintbeat.com. Follow @WordsWithJG.

If you go

Sip
6231 Grand Blvd., New Port Richey 34652. (727) 203-8107; sipitgood.wixsite.com/sipit
The vibe: A cozy beer and wine bar featuring live music and classic cinema.

Food: Small and shared plates, $8-$16.

Booze: Beer and wine. Beer, $7-$8; wine, $6-$24 by the glass and $24-$60 by the bottle.

Specialty: Aside from the excellent local beer selection — 10 rotating drafts, featuring some less common options like HoB Mango Hefeweizen — Sip stocks a fantastically varied wine list, featuring wines from all over the world, port, dessert wine and aperitifs.

Hours: 5-10 p.m. Wednesday-Thursday; 5 p.m.-midnight Friday-Saturday; closed Sunday-Tuesday.