2 days ago
This NYC-Based Wine Shop From Michelin-Starred Vets Puts Roots Down in the Bay Area
A wine shop with Michelin-starred cred behind it is set to open in Menlo Park in late July: Somm Cellars is a wine retailer based in New York City that opened in 2020, and now, founders and sommeliers Jason Jacobeit and Daniel Jung are bringing their popular shop to the Bay Area. But it's not just a copy-paste version of the original; the duo expands their concept further and will fuse their wine shop with a daytime food menu and specialty market, along with an adjoining restaurant dubbed Cafe Vivant. It's an expression of the hospitality the duo always wanted to bring to their original shop, but haven't been able to due to limitations of the liquor license laws in New York.
'We still say to each other on a weekly basis, we're sommeliers that are playing at retail,' Jacobeit says. 'That's at least partially tongue-in-cheek, but we're restaurant people, and so the hybrid license opportunity [in California] was a no-brainer for us because it allowed us to put our first restaurant location on the map, to have this retail business... [that] synergizes closely with the restaurant.'
Jacobeit was formerly the wine director of Michelin-starred (but now closed) Bâtard, noted for his knowledge of Burgundy wines and the extensive selection he built at the restaurant over his 10 years there. Jung was the head sommelier at Tribeca Grill (also closed) for six years, earning attention for the restaurant's Rhone collection and Burgundy program.
For the California restaurant and accompanying daytime menu in the retail section, they've recruited chef Jared Wentworth, previously of Chicago's Longman & Eagle and Dusek's Board & Beer, both of which held a Michelin star for a number of years, and the Dining Room at Moody Tongue, which also earned a Michelin star during Wentworth's time there.
Under Wentworth, Cafe Vivant will highlight heritage-breed chickens on its menu. The team works with farmer Rob James in Pescadero to raise the birds that will be served at the restaurant, and sold at the Somm Cellars market. Jacobeit and Jung partnered with James and purchased a piece of the farm, per the San Francisco Chronicle .
But on the bottle shop side, Wentworth will produce a daytime menu composed of bites and dishes that are meant to be wine-friendly, which is great for those hanging in for a glass or bottle, or produced quickly for those looking for a quick bite on their lunch hour. The duo teased a 'pretty baller' fried chicken sandwich using those aforementioned chickens, deviled eggs from those same birds, as well as rabbit pate, pork rillettes, chicken liver mousse, and a Dungeness crab roll. Although wine will be an obvious, hefty focus on the beverage side, there will also be a selection of bottled cocktails and beers on hand, as well as a pour-over coffee and high-end tea program, the team shares.
While Jacobeit and Jung say they have a contingency of West Coast fans and followers of their New York shop, those wandering in will find a wine selection that echoes their wine backgrounds. They promise a wide, 'enviable' selection of Burgundy wines, including chardonnays and pinot noirs, but they'll also branch into its California counterparts and local examples of those wines. One other distinction will be the inclusion of older vintages. 'A lot of wine shops in the area have a great selection across regions, but no depth in vintages,' says Paul Jones, the general manager for the Menlo Park establishment. 'Because of our access to local sellers, we're going to be able to offer top domains from older vintages, and that's going to be a regular feature in both the retail and the restaurant, too.'
Along with the plentiful wine offerings and the daytime food menu, a retail shop will highlight products from the farm as well as home goods like specialty and vintage glassware and flatware. For grocery offerings, they're moving away from olives and Marcona almonds, and toward farm products like fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers, along with poultry, lamb, and pork — 'a high-end farmers market sort of setup,' Jacobeit says.
'It allows us to really reach the community at a much deeper level, than just a restaurant,' Jacobeit says. 'That's not to say that we wouldn't have opened the bottle shop without the market, but certainly, for both Daniel and me, the market has totally transformed our sense of what is possible and the extent to which we can really become an important part not just of the restaurant scene, but the high-end grocery scene in Silicon Valley.'
That's not to mention the wine event programming. Now that they have both the restaurant and retail space available to them, the ideal scenario is to have wine offerings that feel inclusive at various prices. As an example, they may invite a winemaker to do free tastings of a 2022 vintage with small bites where visitors can learn about the wine. Afterward, the night might expand into a four-course seated dinner in the restaurant, where perhaps an older bottle or some magnums from the winery will be shared with the meal. 'There's this very inclusive, very educational, easy to access component of that event, and then it transitions to something much more aspirational, more high-end,' Jacobeit says.
The team will accent the space with tables and a comfortable couch, all fitting with their vision of a high-end hospitality environment rather than a 'normative' retail environment, they say. 'We didn't want the retail-meets-hospitality to be an abstract part of the concept,' Jacobeit says. 'We want even passersby who are peeking through the window to really see that there's a cozy living room, a community space feel to the design.'
Somm Cellars (720 Santa Cruz Avenue, Menlo Park) debuts late July.
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