A new wine bar — The Grove Wine Bar and Kitchen — opened last week about 600 yards from our front door (just west of 360 on Bee Caves Rd), so we decided to give it a try last night for an early New Year’s Eve.
We’ve been looking forward to The Grove opening for several months, once we saw the huge outdoor wood deck beneath the grove of Live Oak trees next to the restaurant (thus the name).
There’s a huge and very soothing and unique water fountain on the deck (and a flat screen TV for some outdoor football watching), and the deck has two automatic sliding doors into the restaurant — one into the front bar area, and another into the main dining area.
I can already tell that a lot of after work happy hours will be spent beneath these oaks. Especially as it will be a good dog friendly place to enjoy a drink and some light grub after work or on the weekend.
Inside
The interior is a nice casual Austin-elegant — modern and comfortable decor with a small bar at the front of the restaurant and a medium size open dining room behind the bar (probably 25 tables or so). Full walls of windows provide a light, open atmosphere with views of the deck and oak trees.
The Wine
The Grove offers over 150 different bottles of wine, ranging from the low $20’s up to just over $100 per bottle. Many of these are also offered by the glass (for those who don’t care for wine, The Grove also serves beer, with a nice selection of local brews on draft).
We started off the night with two flights (3 oz pours of 3 different but similar wines). My wife is a white wine drinker and tried a Sauvignon Blanc selection, while I went for a Pinot Noir flight.
All three of my Pinots were good, with one of them, a 2006 Claiborne and Churchill (California) Pinto Noir being exceptional. After my first flight, I opted for a full glass of this one ($13.75/glass or $42/bottle).
After dinner, I ended the night with a decent glass of tawny port (sorry, forgot the name of which one I chose).
The Food
The Grove has a nice, varied, and light menu consisting of bruschetta ($9.50), soups (wife had the exceptionally tasty curried butternut squash soup, while I had the venison chili [$6-7]), entree salads ($12.50 - $14.50), pastas ($8.50 - $13), paninis ($8.50), and specialty pizzas ($11.50 for a medium and $14 for a large).
We split a medium Stinky Cheese Man pizza (a white pie with fontina and crumbled blue cheese with prosciutto covered with fresh arugula). The crust was thin and flaky, with a nice touch olive oil. The pizza was light but very tasty and was more than enough food for both of us.
Overall Impression
The Grove is going to be a very welcome addition to the neighborhood. The wait staff was knowledgeable and friendly, and the service was outstanding by Austin standards. The atmosphere is fun and friendly…casual but nice. The wine selection and menu will make it a place we can go to often (and since we can walk the dogs there from our house, would make a nice stop on our evening walks).
The Grove is independently owned by the same people who operated Mezzaluna, Bitter End, Granite Cafe and Reed’s Jazz and Supper Club.
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UPDATE (Jan 5)
On Saturday, I took Angus (our Great Dane) out for a walk and we stopped by The Grove.
The staff was more than happy to have us out on their deck, and even bought Angus out a bowl of water while I enjoyed a few pints of Fireman’s #4 Blonde Ale from Real Ale Brewing Company (Blanco, TX).
Shannon joined us when she was done running errands. She had a few beers, too, and tried the fried calamari, which she thought was outstanding.
UPDATE II (Jan 11)
The Grove finally has a Web site up (sort of). You can at least see their menu and wine list online now.
looks fancy…did you jump the fence? doesnt look like anyone was working.
Left by Kemo on January 2nd, 2008 at 5:45 pm