New Wine Shop

Wine-obsessed Italian restaurant adds new retail store with sommelier's touch

Patrick McCray and Thomas Moësse want to help you drink better wine.

Courtesy photo

When it comes to buying wine, most people have trouble knowing what to choose beyond their personal favorites. Trying to rely on ratings in publications, shelf talkers (those little blurbs that hang from shelves), or which label looks most appealing can offer mixed results.

Wouldn't it be great if a wine shop offered tastings as its primary method of guiding people what to buy? If a trained sommelier picked the bottles and led the tastings, that would be even better. Thankfully, the chef and sommelier at one of Houston's most wine-obsessed restaurants had the same thought.

Divino, the Montrose-area restaurant known for its classic dishes and extensive, all-Italian wine list, will spin off a combination wine bar and bottle shop that will be led by chef-owner Patrick McCray and sommelier Thomas Moësse. Dubbed Vinology, the new concept will open in West University in December.

"For the past sixteen years, while running a busy restaurant, we have also created a highly successful retail program," said McCray in a statement. "Since we feature wines that are often unfamiliar to most diners, we have learned that offering a small taste of an unfamiliar wine is essential to ensuring a pleasant dining experience. We will use this same strategy in Vinology’s retail program, which will features both fun and casual retail events and more educational, seminar-style tastings. This concept is common in Europe and in cities like Boston, New York, and San Francisco. We think Houston is long overdue for something like this.”

Although Moësse is well-regarded for his knowledge of Italian wine, Vinology's 300-plus selections will span the globe. Customers will be able to decide on what to purchase by speaking with the store's employees or browsing tasting notes on an iPad. A concierge service will assist customers in sourcing hard-to-find vintages.

Still, tasting will be at the core of the buying experience through pop-up events hosted by wineries, bi-monthly wine flights, and use of the Coravin device that allows wine to be poured from a bottle without pulling its cork. A wine bar with full and half-glasses will also allow patrons to sip through the store's selections.

"I am certain our tasting bar wine will become a destination for both experienced oenophiles and those simply eager to taste something new,” said McCray. “What better way to shop for wine for dinner parties, weddings or holiday gifts than to taste through our current flight program and enjoy bar snacks like bruschetta, marinated olives or a monthly cheese board created by Houston Dairymaids? The place is going to be a lot of fun, and there will always be something special going on. Not just a bunch of wine on a wall."

openings wine

welcome to paradise

Veteran Houston bartender shakes up the Heights with new tropical bar

Berwick's Birds of Paradise bar exterior

Photo by Eric Sandler

Berwick's Birds of Paradise opened on July 4.

The woman behind your favorite bartender’s favorite bar has quietly opened a new cocktail spot in the Heights. Called Berwick’s Birds of Paradise, it’s the latest project from Double Trouble owner Robin Berwick.

Berwick tells CultureMap that she began looking for a new project about a year ago. Double Trouble, a coffee and cocktail bar that opened in late 2011, no longer required her full attention. She found an ideal space with the former La Coqueta at 2020 Studewood Street, a standalone building in a prime area of the Heights. Similar to Double Trouble, Berwick took inspiration from tropical destinations for BBOP's (pronounced “be bop”) drinks and design — with some additional flair from the only kind of bar she’s never worked at.

“I might be embarrassed if you print this, but it’s the truth. I have bartended in just about every category of bar: restaurant bar, nightclub, dance club, strip club, dive bar, and Anvil and Poison Girl, the cocktail bars that people knew me from before Double Trouble,” she says.

“The only place I didn’t work that I wanted to was a resort hotel bar. I never want to be responsible for running a hotel, but I wanted to open a bar that felt like it was once attached to a hotel.”

Patrons will notice a screen printed portrait of a woman hanging on one of the bar’s walls. Berwick has decided that it depicts the mythical owner of the non-existent hotel that BBOP is attached to.

“I don’t know her name, but she’s a little spooky and she’s blue. I just look at her and ask her what would she do,” Berwick says.

Berwick worked with Jarred Pruitt and Eli Ashby at Houston builder Pruitt Structures to renovate the space with everything from new plumbing and HVAC systems to a vintage-inspired tile floor and an all-new ceiling treatment. The costs ran a little higher than expected, but Berwick cites her “fantastic investors” who raised the money required to build the bar she envisioned.

Berwick's Birds of Paradise bar interior The building received a comprehensive renovation to become Berwick's Birds of Paraidse.Photo by Eric Sandler

The cocktail menu takes a similarly tropical (not to be confused with tiki) theme. For example, the bar’s frozen cocktail is called La Bruha, after a nickname Berwick received from the tradesmen who helped renovate the bar. “It’s a riff on an El Diablo,” she explains, “Tequila, fresh lime juice, spicy ginger beer, habanero tincture, topped with a layer of elderberry liqueur. The ginger surprises people. It’s got a little punch to it.”

Similarly, the Crocodile Tears Martini gets a little island flavor courtesy of Strange Water, a coconut water created by former Houstonian Yael Vengroff, and Grey Goose Citra vodka. “Everybody’s been saying it’s ‘dangerously drinkable,’” Berwick adds.

BBOP’s tidy food menu is overseen by veteran Houston chef Jacob Pate, whose resume includes Coltivare, Good Dog Houston, and the recently-closed Savoir. Current offerings include chicken wings, a smash burger, and a Bikini Sandwich — similar to a Cubano, Pate gives the traditional Catalan-inspired pressed ham and cheese sandwich a Houston twist courtesy of muffaletta compound butter and tomato condiment.

“On the horizon is a house made sausage dog that I’m excited about,” Pate writes in an email. “At Savoir, we had some fun butchery projects that I would like to build upon where it makes sense. Beyond that, the first priority is figuring out how it all fits in our small kitchen and having fun.”

In addition to food and drinks, Berwick is working with Heights cigar bar Nice Ash to stock a humidor for BBOP. Patrons will be able to smoke a cigar on the bar’s patio. Because people will be smoking (among other reasons), BBOP is strictly 21-plus.

The bar opened quietly on July 4. So far, its customers has been a mix of curious neighbors, Double Trouble regulars, and Berwick’s friends in the service industry. After spending so much time on renovations, she says she’s happy to focus on operating her bar.

“I had been used to this high stress level, waiting for the bottom to drop out [during the renovations],” she says. “When the first guests came in, I relaxed. We know how to make drinks.”

Currently, the bar is open Wednesday-Sunday from 4pm - midnight. Days of service and hours of operation will expand once additional employees have been hired.

Photo by Eric Sandler

Berwick's Birds of Paradise opened on July 4.