Financial District, San Francisco
A new wine bar has opened in San Francisco, Verjus, it is located downtown at the limit of the financial district and other, more residential areas (at the corner of Washington st & Montgomery st not far from Embarcadero).
It joins a small group of several
successful venues of the Bay Area samely focused on natural wines, namely Punchdown (the 1st), Terroir, Ordinaire and Ruby. The wine bar (which is also a wine shop and a restaurant) while keeping a casual style (no reservation) is very roomy and well designed with two large connecting rooms that were separate in the early years of the building I guess.
Oddly, the whole building in which Verjus sits, the Eclipse Champagne Building which was built in the early 1850s', housed the first Champagne facility of the West Coast, Eclipse Champagne, which started producing in 1874. There's an open kitchen in one of these rooms while the other has a wall of bottles with the price on them (more pictures on the venue on this page). When we went there with Alex and chef Keisuke Akabori (works at Stonemill Macha) it had been opened only for 6 weeks and was buzzing even on that monday evening.
For the founders Michael and Lindsay Tusk, Verjus was yet another project on top on two other succesful restaurants they own, the Michelin 3-star Quince (same area, almost just on the other side of the block) and Cotogna, an Italian
restaurant next to Quince (cotogna meaning quince in Italian). Each time they waited
years before opening the next one with a different concept, 7 years between Quince and Cotogna, and another 9 years to Verjus. Fabien Rety who also works at Verjus told me when I met him at Brumaire that with Verjus there's a contact point with the culture of a 3-Michelin-star restaurant and the one of a laidback natural-wine bar, Michael Tusk tries to bring something like Camedeborde L'Avant Comptoir which isn't much common even in Paris. Fabien says that this type of service (relaxed with tapas and small plates) isn't yet ingrained into the restaurant culture here and there's a risk to bring this blend of San Sebastian & Paris food/wine serving culture, but the connection between a chef's cuisine and a great wine list works well.
The wine selection counts no less than 450 cuvées, these are wines made naturally from France (lots of French wines as you can guess), Spain, Portugal, Germany, Australia and California, really a very wide choice for a restaurant even in San Francisco where there's the clientèle for these wines. With a cork fee of only 20 $ the wines here are very affordable compared to regular restaurants, this means you pay only 240 $ to drink a Jacques Sélosse, which is nothing in the United States for this grower Champagne; same for Jérôme Prévost's La Closerie, a Champagne impossible to find, the modest cork fee makes it a great deal to have at the restaurant. The prices in the wine list include the cork fee and the price marked on the bottles on the shelves is the price to go.
While I'm at it, here are a few excerpts from the Champagne pages on the wine list (prices are what you pay for a bottle when you seat) : Georges Laval Cumières 1er Cru Brut nature NV 114$; Ulysse Colin (4 different cuvées), Les Enfers, Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut NV 178 $; Agrapart L'Avizoise, Grand Cru, Blanc de Blancs Extra Brut 179 $; Ruppert Leroy, Les Cognaux, Brut Nature 2014 96 $; Jacques Lassaigne (3 cuvées) Soprano Grande Côte Blanc de Blancs Brut Nature 2012 120 $; Marie Courtin, Concordance Blanc de Noirs Extra Brut 2014 125 $; Marie-Noëlle Ledru, Cuvée du Goulté Grand Cru Blanc de Noirs Brut 2011 300 $; Tarlant Rosé Brut Zéro NV 80 $; Vouette et Sorbée (4 cuvées), Textures, Extra Brut NV
Among the things that caught my attention at Verjus it's the staff, very efficient, and plenty, in both rooms, the kitchen, the counter. And they're very motivated as you can see here when I took a group portrait of them at Brumaire, this ios a wine restaurant and they were eager to know about the wines poured by the artisan winemakers at the wine fair.
I spoke a few minutes with Yoojin Chung (second from left front row - she is the general manager) while at Verjus, asking her to tell in 2 minutes about what Verjus had to offer : she says they wanted to have a place where in the place of being just a natural wine bar, the food had to be in line, with ingredients bought in artisan sources and farms that care about the land and the communities. They try to have food that is approachable, delicious in a casual setting so that people can just drop in for a quick bite and a glass of wine, have friends come, stay 5 hours if they want to, pop open a bottle of wine chosen from the shelves, all depending of the circumstances.
The convivial aspect of the place is important here, they have the wine shop, the cave à manger and they want the place to retain this relaxed feel of allowing you to drop when you want, withouty having to reserve ahead. Asked about what I considered a low median age for the people in here that evening, Yoojin says that the demographics is helped by the fact that Verjus is located at the edge of the Financial District, on aother side is Jackson Square, a historic neighborhood, then there's Chinatown and yet another direction Embarcadero, it's kind at a crossroads between different neighborhoods. They thus have a lot of young professionnals, plus there are people that have been following Michael and Lindsay for a long time (with their other restaurants) and come here for something different, plus you have people who don't go to Quince or Cotogna but look precisely for Verjus' different concept.
The wine shop is basically an entire wall along one of the rooms, with certainly some bottles stored in the cellar beneath because their portfolio is huge. When you sit down you're given the wine list which is a 15-page thing with tightly-packed cuvées from top to bottom. The bottle prices marked on the shelves or on the wine list include the cork fee, and if you want a bottle to go, you just have to take 20 $ from the listed price, Yoojin says that many customers are surprised because the end price in that case is much lower than what they expected to pay, and I myself (even as a Frenchman used to French prices) had the feeling that these bottles were very affordable considering the added costs of shipping, import duties and business location, great job.
This is the man behind Verjus' astonishing wine list, Matt Cirne is a managing partner here, meaning he partly owns it too. I spoke to him a few minutes here too, congratulating him for the wine list, he said some of the cuvées weren't easy to get, he travelled to France to secure several of them, he says that's the only way to do sometimes. Matt says that it's a good thing they have a cellar underground to store bottles (it's not under the whole surface of the venue but still sizeable) because people buy a lot of wine to go. And also the good thing is that Quince has also a cellar and it helps them moving wine around, allowing for more flexibility in the supply, and it helped bounce back the pairing opportunities offered at Quince, adding for example Yvon Métras or Coulée de Serrant and he like this synergy here. He has also lots of domestic natural wine like Martha Stoumen, La Clarine, Frenchtown Farms, La Onda, he says he loves La Onda with its patient aging of the wines, telling us about Dani's white wine he had at Brumaire (Semillon & Sauvignon Blanc), it was the wine that really caught his attention there.
Matt is always on alert and ready to add another wine, visiting the winemakers with a keen interest for what they're experimenting, like a Vermouth Dani made recently, he'll see if they can have it here too. He loves Avi's wines too, his wines
he says are so unfashionable, some of the cuvées being oaky with the his shaving the barrels,
plus he picks late some of these cuvées, yielding oak, raisin, concentration, a little akin to the Amarone, he loves that. I can't but agree, the wines are as bold as the man... At this point Alex tells about another small winery to discover, Los Pilares, they make wine in San Diego from grapes sourced around. Matt himself is talking us about Black Trumpet, one of his favorite finds recently, the winemakers (Garrett Pierce & wife Sophie Drucker) there make only 2 barrels of wine in his in-law's garage, only Syrah, both sans soufre and with a little bit. Matt wants to have here all off Garrett's vintages since 2012, the first.
Another thing, if I understood well, Garrett who is a musician (country music) used to work at Terra Firma, a Northern California distributor. His wines are hard to find, Alex remembers having tasted them at Terroir one day, samely Matt who had just moved to the Bay Area from south California, an appartment next to City Beer (an iconic beer spot at the time) he went to Terroir, where Garrett's wine was the first wine he had in San Francisco... To his knowledge, Garrett makes his wine at Orinda with the Living Wines Collective and then moves the barrel(s) to his in-law's garage.
At one point, Matt said a few words with someone sitting with his friends at a nearby table (they were sharing exciting bottles), it was no less than Mark Yatabbe who is the wine director at Great China, a restaurant in Berkeley known for its outstanding wine list. From what I read it's another gem of a restaurant (maybe like New Sammy's Cowboy Bistro near Ashland, Oregon, that is, unusual neighborhood location, name but terrific wine list and affordability (and i guess their Chinese California cuisine is must-go either), making it among a short list of 12 Asian eateries nationwide with exceptional wines. Mark says Great China is a favorite restaurant for wine people including Brumaire people, I guess the Berkeley "wine climate" helps that all, with both Chez Panisse (Alice comes here at Great China too) and Kermit Lynch having deep roots there... Mark says that the owners at Great China love wine, himself also, and he loves browsing through all the wines offered at Verjus when he comes here, he calls that an embarrassment of riches...
Speaking about Chez Panisse, I learnt separately that Alice will host a vide grenier or a yard sale with her daughter this coming sunday (march 31) on the restaurant's parking lot from 10 am to 3 pm, don't miss that if you're in the area ! Address : 1517 Shattuck Ave., Berkeley.
I was mildly pleased with my glass choice, a Bourgueil 2017 by Domaine Guion (round, polished but lacking excitement) and we decided to order a bottle to go with the cheese & charcuterie plate, so
I chose Nicolas Vauthier's Vini Viti Vinci Coulanges la vineuse 2016 (actually I had chosen the 2017 but
they hadn't anymore and brought this vintage instead). So good and easy drinking, and it's a sulfur-free wine, although you may spot a "contains sulfites" on the back label. To compare the prices, the 2017 (I'm not sure they were at the same price and they may have billed us the cheaper 2017 for the 2016 we had) is sold for 47 $ at Verjus if I remember, which means that the price to go (from the wine-shop) is 20 $ off, that is, 27 $ (or 24 €) which is I think very affordable in California considering the distance. Here in France the bottle was found online at 16 € (compared to Verjus' 24 €).
The man behind my glass on the right (sorry, no other picture) was chef Keisuke Akabori of Stonemill Matcha which opened 10 months ago in San Francisco, he was working before at Delage in Oakland and Saison in San Francisco. I thought I'd be able to hop to his pastry restaurant the following morning before getting to the airport but couldn't.
Another interesting thing I learnt through him, his sister Kayoko Akabori opened a few years ago with an associate Umami Mart in Oakland, a shop where you can find a growing number of Japanese whiskies (and now Shochu), and from what I understood she plans to open the first Suntory restaurant in the U.S.
There were some 15 cuvées on the black board for the selection by the glass that day, sparkling, whites, orange and reds. Interesting when you just want top try a
particular wine on that list but if there's just two people and you know what you like it's a good deal to choose a bottle instead (and then order a 2nd bottle of something else...).
Sparkling : Françoise Bedel, Origin'Elle, Champagne NV 19 $; Sauro Maule, Sgass, Veneto 2017 15 $; La Porte Saint Jean, Six Roses Vin de France 2017 16 $;
Whites : Domaine Bellevue, Gabbro Muscadet 2017 10 $; Finca Parera, Clar, Penédès 2017 13 $; Nicolas Reau, Attention Chenin Méchant 2017 14 $; Hidalgo 30 Cuadrado, Andalucia 2016 11 $;
Orange : Pheasant's Tears, Kisi, Kakheti 2015 12 $
Reds : Chateau Grand Pré, Brouilly 2016 14 $; Cascina Roccalini, Nebbiolo, Piemonte 2017 16 $; Domaine Guion Bourgueil 2017 10 $; Closeries de Moussis, Haut Médoc 2016 19 $; J.L. Jamet, Valine, Collines Rhodaniennes 2015 17 $.
Matt Cirne is a busy man, he now has to share his time between the 3 restaurants he overviews for the wines, and of course as a managing partner of this cave à manger in its early weeks, he'll focus on Verjus. Here is an excerpt of an interview he had last december, this was about what he does at 11 am :
I take tasting appointments. There is an army of distributors, importers, and producers that have wine to sell. I could probably take six or seven appointments every day of the year if time permitted, of course, it doesn’t. I tend to be very selective about who I taste with. I often prefer to discover wines myself through researching producers and picking bottles off the shelves from favorite retailers or wine brokers. I always enjoy tasting with producers most of all—no one is more insightful about the wine than the person who crafted it. As for my tastes, they are pretty eclectic. While I like the classics and will always go back to them nothing excites me more than something I enjoy but have never tasted before. Over 12 years of working in wine and that still happens routinely.
Here are a few prices picked randomly in the wine list (only whites, sorry, but you can see the reds on the sides), lots of other producers :
Jean François
Ginglinger Pinot Gris 2015 50 $; Domaine Riefel Riesling Grand Cru Zotsenberg 2013 46 $;
Bruno Schueller Riesling H 2016 62 $; Valentin Zusslin Riesling Grand Cru Pfingsberg 2007 102 $; Chateau Béru, Clos Béru Chablis 2014 86 $; Olivier et Alice de Moor, L'Humeur du Temps Chablis 2015 88 $; Jean-Marie Berrux Le Petit Têtu Bourgogne 2015 56 $; Chapuis Frères Saint Romain 2015 57; Dominique Derain La Combe Bourgogne 2014 62 $, Domaine de la Cras Bourgogne 2016 51 $; Chantreve, Auxey Duresses 2015 75 $; Domaine Brand, Flêche Saignante, Brut Nature, Crémant d'Alsace NV 43 $; Marie THibault, La Roue qui Tiourne blanc 2015, 42 $; Vini Viti Vinci Bourgogne aligoté 2017 43 $; Clos des Vignes du Maynes, Aragonite, Macon-Cruzille 2015 66 $; Domaine Valette, Clos de Monsieur Noly, Pouilly Fuissé 2015 118 $; Berthet Bondet Côte du Jura 2015 48 $; Ganevat, Les Chalasses Vieilles Vignes Côtes du Jura 2009, 161 $; L'Octavin, Pamina Arbois 2015 77 $; Domaine Ratte, Savagnin Ouillé Nature Arbois 2015 68 $; Gauby Vieilles Vignes Côtes Catalanes 2014 54 $;
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