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Ybor City Wine Bar: Much more than the name implies

 
Bartender Ashleigh Cunningham pours for regulars Mary and Les Mouzon.
Bartender Ashleigh Cunningham pours for regulars Mary and Les Mouzon.
Published Oct. 24, 2014

Here's one way to be effective if you open a drinking establishment: Tell your customers what they're going to get, right there in the name. Then give them a lot more.

Ybor City Wine Bar might not be the most evocative name, but it does the job. It's definitely a wine bar, and you'd be right if you guessed it's in Ybor City, right in the middle of the Centro Ybor complex.

But the second part, where you deliver a whole lot more than the setup promised in the name? Check. Ybor City Wine Bar excels as a wine bar in Ybor City, but it's got much more than that one trick.

First, the bar. It's a tiny little space in the middle of Centro Ybor, made even tinier by the wall of wine bottles in racks against the wall next to the bar. There's a small seating area in the corner, and some café tables outside. It's a prime people-watching space, with a direct view of the Seventh ­Avenue thoroughfare.

Next, the wine. There are more than 200 wines available at the Ybor City Wine Bar. Rather than group them by style or region, the menu organizes loosely themed wines that share a price point. For example, if you're on a budget, you may want to check a few of the Classics ("classic traditional grape varietals"), which will set you back only $6 a glass. Have a refined palate and money to burn? Check out a few of the Rising Stars ("up and coming wines") at $15 a glass.

This is a cool method for organizing wines, as it gives novices a starting point (e.g., I'm willing to spend up to $8 a glass, so what are my options?), and it encourages exploration of different styles.

In most bars, $5 will get you the basic house wines; at Ybor City Wine Bar, you can try a Vinho Verde from Portugal, Tempranillo from Spain or Torrontés from Argentina. Heck, you can even leave it up to the bartender and do a dealer's-choice flight of five wines for $15.

Speaking of those bartenders, the Ybor City Wine Bar staff are experts, complete with sommelier and Certified Specialist of Wine papers. Ybor City Wine Bar even offers classes for those seeking CSW certification — $750 for classes and materials, so you'd better really want it — as well as the ability to take the certification exam on-site (the staff are also proctors).

Finally, the wild card: This place has an amazing beer selection. Not only is the selection varied and reasonably extensive (more 60 beers and ciders available), Ybor City Wine Bar works with a long list of distributors to track down unusual selections that you won't find at most other places. Stuff like Pannepot, Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast, Crooked Stave Vielle Artisanal Saison, Wild Beer Co. Bliss and so on.

The beer list is impressive for a wine bar, but it wouldn't be out of place at a serious beer bar, either. For people with such expertise in the wine department, I'm frankly surprised at the beer list that they've managed to curate. (I use the term "curate" because it's clear that this list is not the product of random selections from a distributor's list; it's deliberate.)

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Ybor City Wine Bar may be a wine bar, but it's also a classroom, it serves a variety of small plates and desserts, has a bar that might surprise even a dedicated beer geek.

The name, clearly, does not say it all. — jg@saintbeat.com