Wine bars

[Hot Flatus]

I've just realised. I've never actually been in one.
Am I missing out?

[Kim]

In my mind they've always been what branches of your bank turn into so you can't pay in a cheque, rather than an actual destination in their own right.  Always sort of assumed they'd be full of 80s yuppies with their TACS brick-phones and filofaxen, so reality can only be a disappointment.

Probably helps if you drink wine, TAAW.

[Hot Flatus]

Well that is what happened to my bank! 

[Woofage]

I went in one once, in the early 90s. I was refreshed ('scuse the pun) to discover it also served BEER* so it wasn't all bad. Well, maybe it was but those memories have been erased.

* not good beer, but cool, wet and mildly alcoholic

[Woofage]

Well that is what happened to my bank! 

I'm struggling with my response to this, since I hate both banks and wine bars. However, since I probably hate banks more I can only suggest that this is a good thing.

[Ian H]

Sometime back in the early 70s I was, for reasons long forgotten, in a Yates winebar in Nottingham.  I recall a vast area with a mezzanine balcony.  It sticks in my mind because of a number of oddly-dressed, rather elderly women with elaborate hairdos and pantomime-dame make-up.

There's a small one just down the road from here, but it doesn't have the same atmosphere.

[offcumden]

Ah! Yates Wine Lodge in Nottingham. I spent a few drunken evenings there while at college nearby in the late 60s. Don't remember the pantomime dames (who I might have assumed were 'ladies of easy virtue'), but there often seemed to be lots of uni students in formal togs.  I believe it's now a listed building. Don't think it was ever a bank.

[ian]

Oh, bejesus, the Wates Wine Lodge in Nottingham, bad, bad memories of being 17. That was always part of our down-Nottingham pub call, along with tactical vomiting, chips, and the terrible ride home on the last bus. Terrible, because you had several pints of liquid in your bladder urgently asserting its need for independence and the bus would stop, stop, stop and take approximately forever until you forced to take a cheeky piss into any available receptacle or get off to decorate a bus shelter and walk the rest of the way home.

I only drink wine out of boxes and don't like paying more than £11.99, so I doubt wine bars are the place for me. I was dragged into one at JFK a while back – I swear a single small glass of wine cost me $18 without the inevitable tip.

That said, I'm a beer hipster, so rather than deprecated banks, I find myself living a troll-like existence under dank railway arches, sitting on outdoor furniture indoors, and drinking cloudy, dank beer.

[Cudzoziemiec]

"Wine bar" makes me think of that Roxy Music song "Love is the drug" but actually the phrase in that is "singles bar." "Yates Wine Lodge" is something I'd never heard of till about a month ago, when an ex-denizen of Warrington said turning the town's last art-deco cinema into a YWL was the signal it was time for him to seek a better place to live. Whether a YWL is actually a wine bar as such, I'm not sure. Anyway, never been in either, but my imagination of one is similar to what Kim said, perhaps fuelled by Roxy Music. In fact, Brian Eno is exactly the sort of character I'd expect to find in a wine bar.

[vorsprung]

I've not seen a wine bar since 1988 so I googled "wine bars Bristol" expecting disappointment but.. there was a list of several

[Ben T]

I thought you'd discovered a confectionary item that was wine gum material but in a bar.

[Ham]

You probably missed out on optimum wine bar epoch, the time when they were somewhat recherche and aimed towards an alternative culture rather than being an alternative boozer. Back in the 70's I lived off Oxford Street, above a wine bar that used to host the Barrow Poets on a Friday Night, next door to a pub. aka, in an alcoholic haze. It was good, even if I can't remember that much....

[Tim Hall]

Here's what Alexei Sayle has to say about wine bars:

Wine bars aren't called wine bars because of what you drink when you're dining,
wine bars are called wine bars because they're full of people WHINING!

[SteveC]

I think I've been to two. One was in Southampton, circa 1985, which was a pleasant enough place to have a quiet sit and chat. I wasn't drinking at lunchtime then (I have phases when I will and when I don't) so can't tell you about the drinks.
The other was Balls Brothers in the City of London, circa 1988, so mid-yuppie. They took your credit card off you as you ordered your first drink, wine was only available by the bottle, and the cheapest was what seemed to me to be an eye-watering price. Fortunately I wasn't paying.

[Palinurus]

Used to drink in a Wine Bar back in the 80s. Strange place, no yuppies, a few bikers, a few goths, a lot of scruffy herberts, some slumming students and a couple of hash dealers. They had a Shinobi machine downstairs, it was the greatest.

One lunchtime this short plumber- who drank in there frequently- invented a game which involved trying to throw a knife into a cabbage which was balanced on top of the jukebox.

[Palinurus]

The only wine I ever saw being drunk was Thunderbird, from the bottle.

[Pingu]

Used to drink in a Wine Bar back in the 80s. Strange place, no yuppies, a few bikers, a few goths, a lot of scruffy herberts, some slumming students and a couple of hash dealers. They had a Shinobi machine downstairs, it was the greatest.

One lunchtime this short plumber- who drank in there frequently- invented a game which involved trying to throw a knife into a cabbage which was balanced on top of the jukebox.

That sounds like the cocktail bar near us 

[rogerzilla]

I've been in several, but only drank wine in one.  Two of them were All Bar Ones.  The most expensive was just off Regent Street and is the only option on a Monopoly pub crawl.

[andrewc]

https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/whats-on/whats-on-news/keiths-wine-bar-lark-lane-14197753



https://confidentials.com/liverpool/restaurant-review-keiths?redirect=account%2Fregister&email=


A Liverpool institution,  I've spent many a happy night in there , leading to many an unhappy morning...... 


The policy used to be £5 markup on the actual cost of a bottle, so if you ordered the £7 stuff, it was a bit rough, but the £20 stuff was pretty decent. The only place where I've ever drank Chateau Musar.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Château_Musar


The bogs , it must be said were disgusting, though that didn't stop my mate from copping off in the gents one night 


We were in one evening & speculated about how much cash was visible behind the bar,  later that evening a couple of chaps waving machetes kicked the doors in & took the lot.

[Tim Hall]

I've been in several, but only drank wine in one.  Two of them were All Bar Ones.  The most expensive was just off Regent Street and is the only option on a Monopoly pub crawl.

<thread merge>Jurek has got me into the habit of calling them Al Barone , in an Italian stylee.

[Efrogwr]

"Wine bar" makes me think of that Roxy Music song "Love is the drug" but actually the phrase in that is "singles bar." "Yates Wine Lodge" is something I'd never heard of till about a month ago, when an ex-denizen of Warrington said turning the town's last art-deco cinema into a YWL was the signal it was time for him to seek a better place to live. Whether a YWL is actually a wine bar as such, I'm not sure. Anyway, never been in either, but my imagination of one is similar to what Kim said, perhaps fuelled by Roxy Music. In fact, Brian Eno is exactly the sort of character I'd expect to find in a wine bar.

It's a long time ago, but I heard that Brian Eno used to go to a normal pub.

[andrewc]

A friend has waxed lyrical about this place, https://gordonswinebar.com   Is it good ?  I'm due a trip to That London soon.

[Jurek]

I've been in several, but only drank wine in one.  Two of them were All Bar Ones.  The most expensive was just off Regent Street and is the only option on a Monopoly pub crawl.

<thread merge>Jurek has got me into the habit of calling them Al Barone , in an Italian stylee.

They are Italian.
Aren't they?

[Paul]

Sometime back in the early 70s I was, for reasons long forgotten, in a Yates winebar in Nottingham.  I recall a vast area with a mezzanine balcony.  It sticks in my mind because of a number of oddly-dressed, rather elderly women with elaborate hairdos and pantomime-dame make-up.

There's a small one just down the road from here, but it doesn't have the same atmosphere.

Ah! Yates Wine Lodge in Nottingham. I spent a few drunken evenings there while at college nearby in the late 60s. Don't remember the pantomime dames (who I might have assumed were 'ladies of easy virtue'), but there often seemed to be lots of uni students in formal togs.  I believe it's now a listed building. Don't think it was ever a bank.

Oh, bejesus, the Wates Wine Lodge in Nottingham, bad, bad memories of being 17. That was always part of our down-Nottingham pub call,

Me four. Only once. Or twice. I forget. Late 90s for me.

[Jurek]

A friend has waxed lyrical about this place, https://gordonswinebar.com   Is it good ?  I'm due a trip to That London soon.

No idea.
But I think you should go for it.