Charlie Bird - NYC Spot For A Great Glass Of Wine
Charlie Bird is delicious, but here's what we really geeked out about
If we were to "accidentally" slip something into our purse from Soho's new Charlie Bird, it would be a pair of Zalto wine glasses.
When sommelier Robert Bohr, who has done time at such heavyweights as Gramercy Tavern, Babbo and the dearly departed Cru, was designing his restaurant, these glasses were nonnegotiable–no matter how pricey ($60 each).
Beautifully light, impossibly thin and blown with needle-fine stems, Zalto is less well known than Riedel, but Bohr thinks it's a name you should know. Glasses this delicate highlight and heighten all the good–and bad–things about wines. Or, as Bohr puts it, "They don't suffer fools gladly."
We rigorously tested them out with a bottle of Scarpetta Timido Spumante Rosé Friuli Blaufrankisch Pinot Noir ($45 for 750 ml) and a storm's worth of small plates: tiny eggplant highlighted with zucchini and mint ($8), a radish salad with a painter's palette of avocado, yogurt and cumin ($14), and a silken ragù of veal and pancetta ($20).
Warm without being stuffy, Charlie Bird is the most fun you can have drinking serious wine (with food to match) this summer.
If you spot us there with a roomy tote, be a dear and turn the other cheek.