Given the 2-3 year “residence cycle” in San Francisco, I don’t how many people remember the old-old Hidden Vine in the bottom of the Fitzgerald Hotel on Post (or down the steps off Cosmo). I’ll pull out my pipe and tell all you young whipper snappers that it was a nice, cozy place with a couple of owners who really knew wine and how to make you discover new ones. I know I learned a lot from them. Well, the ownership changed back in 2008 and I stopped going. The new staff were rude, thoroughly dislikable, and often overly in love with how they looked in a mirror. Oh, the wine selection also became turd. Not surprisingly, they closed to move out of the hood. It was just amazing that it took so long.
Now, it appears that Nikki Goddard and Sarah Trubnick have taken all my sour grapes and made something tasty out of them as today they officially open, The Barrel Room. They’ve massively updated the interior so that your ass doesn’t fall asleep while you’re on a crappy first date, but at the same time, it’s still very familiar. In other words, it’s cozy and comfortable. If you want modern, glowing neon and sleek lounge shit, this ain’t it. Also, if you want dive bar with splinters and rusty nails, this also ain’t it. It’s a nice touch of good old-fashioned, comfy, class in an out of the way and quiet space.
In regards to their offerings, Nikki and Sarah have gone a long way to having a long list of wines (like 120 of them) that are interesting and affordable. And despite being all wine geeky, they’re still happy to talk with people about wine as opposed to at/down to people. They’re bringing back the rotating region focuses and this first month, they bust out some France. This will be especially interesting for me as I generally know next to nothing about French wine and make fun of France due to my amazingly huge inferiority complex tinged with jealously which is basically being an American about France. Other regions will come along and they’re going to always give the shout out on their Facebook and Twitter.
Now go and enjoy as they also have 12 different beers to choose from if you think that wine is for assholes but your date really wants to go to a wine bar. They’ll be open everyday from 5PM ’til Late unless you get super drunk and douchey in which they’ll be open ’til Cab Picks You Up.
6 Comments until now
We’ll be there tonight!
Are any of those 12 beers on tap?
Ahhhhh, so that’s what happened with this place! I liked the original owners but I didn’t know about the ownership change. I was wondering why I never saw them there anymore and why I was treated with utter contempt by the dickheads that were working there.
I hope the new folks changed the carpet. It was smelling awfully sour for the past few years.
New owners – Please be nice… Thank you…
Unfortunately they had to keep the carpet as it matches the rest of the hotel. But, they deep cleaned the hell out of it and the funk that was, has been abated. Also, the complete furniture update cleaned things up as well.
The new owners have a much higher standard of what clean is and appear to be putting forward a wine bar that they would want to hang out at, which makes sense given that with being open seven days a week now, they’ll be there a lot.
I used to go to the Hidden Vine and I stopped going there because of the rude staff and ironically, they closed a week or two later. I went by the new Barrel Room and I could be mistaken but one of the girls working the floor looked all too familiar… Then I realized she was the “rude staff” who made me stop going to the Hidden Vine. Won’t be back…
[...] was seemingly unpleasant, according to the Tender, and has been changed into a wine bar that looks incredibly promising. Former Hidden Vine managers Nikki Goddard and Sarah Trubnick took the space, renovated it, and [...]