What has happened to Pinot? I was really looking forward and enthusiastic about dining here based on my last experience, but I was very, very disappointed as the evening progressed. The menu reads entirely different from my last visit. Gone and missing from the menu is all the local flavor that made this place unique from all the other restaurants in Tower. Our server informed our table that the produce no longer is local and organic. The interesting charcuterie was nowhere to be found as well on this last visit. The cheese list has been drastically cut and offers no variety or contrast in flavors. Where did the manchego go? The gorgeous, green Castelvetrano olives have been replaced by what appears to be an unappealing, canned variety. The beautiful bistro burger that I came to know so well has been reduced down to average at best and mediocre. The quality of ingredients have gone down, while prices have gone up. $15 for a burger that comes with American cheese? No thanks. What a quick turn around for a menu that was full of high quality ingredients and creativity.
There are more pasta options available than previous, but these dishes lack originality and are easily found at Olive Garden or Cheesecake Factory. The "craft" beer list has changed substantially also and not for the better. In are Shocktop and Newcastle, (not exactly craft beers) and out are Chimay and Triple Voodoo amongst others. What a shame. I thought Tower had a gem here.
Pinot Wine Bar is my favorite place to relax in Tower. Â They have a great selection of wines, but they also sell craft beers and coctails. Â They have a small menu that often changes because they use only fresh local produce. Â They usually have a few salads, a pasta dish, their Bistro Burger (I love it!) and right now they have two steamed mussel dishes. Â They also have fresh meat and cheese boards, as well as other appetizers. Â They usually have three or four desserts including flourless torte and creme brulee.
The atmosphere is great. Â They regularly have wine tasting classes, live bands, and when the weather is nice, they have movie nights on the back patio. Â The owners are really nice and they really put a lot of themselves into the business. Â
They can get really busy on the weekends, so service can be slower, so go on a Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday night and you will get top notch service!
Stopped in on a Tuesday evening - really glad we did! Â Although they were out of a lot of items on the menu (remember, it was a Tuesday evening), the experience was lovely. Â The burger was exceptional! Â Emily was a great server, willing to bring us samples of the wines we were considering until we chose the one we liked. Â Cool space, great music, casual atmosphere. Â Try it out!
Review Source:Want good wine? Â Come here. Â Want good food? Â Or for that matter, want ANY food? Â Go next door to the Tower Cafe. Â We went here on a Saturday night enroute to a show at the Tower. Â Ordered two glasses of wine and two burgers. Â The wine arrived which we enjoyed. Â I could see the kitchen from my seat and over the course of 45 minutes saw three meals completed/served. Â After seeing what I think was our order served to a couple that arrived AFTER we did, we finally caught the eye of our server who sheepishly told us the kitchen had run out of beef! Â Gee...thanks for telling us. Â And ...would we like to order more food? Â Eh, no thanks. Â Just the bill please. Â Hey owner? Â It shouldn't take too much effort to stock up for your three-item menu should it? Â Like I said, the burgers next door were wonderful - and only cost $6.
Review Source:Not being a knowledgeable wine person (just fine with two buck Chuck) this place was great for me. Â The owner explained the different wines I was sampling and where they were from. Â Very pleasant and relaxing. Â I liked the decor inside and the patio is nice and comfortable. Â Will return for sure.
Review Source:we work @ La Vogue Beauty Shoppe in the Tower just down the street. d.j. bradley was spinning last thur. & i guess does bi-monthly on thurs. from 7-10p.m. we walked over after wk & sat on the patio for some drinks & dinner, all the wait staff r r SO friendly, incredibale grilled cheese sandwich, nice crowd & great music!!!! highly recommend going!!!!
Review Source:so, i'm not a big wine person, so i've sort of stayed away from pinot even though it's in my neighborhood and i always like to find good, local food. Â i also didn't think their menu was all that extensive. Â anyway, a good friend had told me that they had been recently and that we should check it out, and that they dinner menu had changed a little.
i stopped by on a wednesday evening and it was crazy hot outside. Â inside, very pleasant. Â clean, cool atmosphere greeted us, and we sat with our friends who had gotten there before us. Â the waiter brought out waters and menus, and gave us some time to look over things.
when he came back, i ordered a spatten off their beer menu - even though they're a wine bar they have a very nice beer menu. Â not sure if they have much on tap, but have a good bottle selection and most are very reasonably priced.
anyway, my wife ordered one of the cheese plates and a dessert for dinner. she really liked it - the cheese was up to her expectations and it also came with fruit and nuts. Â yeah, i know, this is basic cheese plate stuff, but it was still good. Â i ordered the burger & fries. Â the burger comes with fresh lettuce, tomato and choice of cheese. you can also add bacon or an egg for an additional charge. i wanted to taste their burger as is, so i just went with the standard order. i was impressed that it was cooked to order, and the chef actually cooked it right. Â sounds simple, again, but often a cooked to order burger is still well done, which isn't my taste. Â the burger had a very good taste. the fries were some simple shoe strings, but the tasted nice, and were finished with a sea or kosher salt.
i will certainly be going back for the burger again, but this time i'll be adding the egg for sure because eggs on burgers are the business. Â probably the bacon as well. Â the food menu isn't super large, and the other items seemed interesting and worth trying. Â i have no idea about the wines.
I'll come back for drinks, but not dinner. And the drinks will be at the bar if I want more than one.
Had dinner here-- the dining room was practically empty. Food was ok, but the waitress seemed completely uninterested in checking to see if our water glasses and drinks were getting empty. She also brought our check over while we were still drinking, seeming very eager to have us leave. Yet there were a ton of people in the back patio, and the place was nowhere near closing.
I'm disappointed-- I had hoped to have a new Tower dinner spot!
We went with friends who'd been there before and had a great experience.
Our time was just okay. The server they loved from before wasn't working that night and our server was woefully ignorant of the wines, where they were from, what paired nicely, and even if they were dry or sweet.
The food was good. We ordered several small plates to share.
Dessert was excellent.
I'll go again to give them another chance.
But the server will have to be knowledgeable about what s/he is pouring.
I would have squeezed out another star for Pinot had my meal come out in a timely fashion. Â Met some friends there for Jazz Hop. Â We arrived about 10 minutes after they did and as soon as we sat down, their cheese plate and fish tacos arrived. Â We ordered our wine sampler ($10 for 3 tastes) perused the menu and decided upon fish tacos as well as our friend raved about them. Â We put our order in at 6:45 and did not get our tacos until 7:20. Â Fish tacos people! Â The battered fish probably took less than 2 minutes to fry; how can three tacos take 35 minutes to make when there were only two other tables of patrons?! Â At least our server had the wherewithall to package our dinner in a to-go box so that we could make it to a 7:30 show at the Revue. Â We literally had to tailgate in their parking lot and scarf down our tacos in hurry. Granted, the tacos were delicious, but not exactly the dining experience we had in mind. "I can't believe I'm eating my tacos in the alley of a parking lot," I exclaimed 5 minutes before showtime. Â What the hell . . .
Review Source:To be called a "wine bar" wouldn't you at least have interesting wines on the menu instead of these pedestrian offerings? Or even flights? Mediocre selection at best. The California wines are just that ... The California appellation and anyone who knows knows that means San Joaquin Valley grapes. Ugh. Someone needs to give the wine list waaaay more thought. Â The beer selection looked more interesting but I drove to the Tower hoping to support fine wine. It's not there. Yet.
Review Source:Came here for a going away party for the sis in law. Really busy and really loud! Not my kinda scene but hey, I don't drink so that explains it.
I really liked the tapas, good food! They also have a pastry chef so that's always a plus! Great grilled cheese with bacon! Get it with the bacon you won't be disappointed! Also has carmelized onions and its just sooooo good! *drools* Hubby and I split it and were full.
Tons of wine selection, I can compare this with some paso robles establishments/restaurants/bars if you like that sort of thing.
Service is good, nice owner, food is great, again it's loud and not my type of thing but in comparison to the places I've been to like this, easily deserves all the stars.
Went here last night with a girlfriend. Â As other reviews mentioned, it's a "grown-up" atsmosphere. Â No TVs, quiet music. Â I think this would be a great place to go to catch up with a friend (like I was) or a first date. Â This isn't the normal Tower vibe... not a pick-up your next bedpost notch kind of place whatsoever, and I like it that way.
We each started with a glass of wine... hers was free because it was the last bottle and there wasn't quite enough for a full pour. Â They were also out of my first choice. Â I was also a little disappointed that they don't offer flights all the time since that's what I like to do when I go to a wine bar. Â They stop having flights at 6:30pm on weekends according to their menu. Â One plus is they do offer quite a number of wines by the glass, almost all of them on the list are available by the glass. Â Our server was ok, she looked very young and I'm not sure how knowledgeable she would really be about wine
Now, the food.  This was disappointing.  I was expecting there to be many more substantial food options...or actual tapas even. In fact, we were planning on eating dinner here, we ended up just ordering a couple items as starters, then moved on elsewhere to have an actual dinner.  But, what we did have was very good.  We shared the spinach salad and the mushroom ragout.  Both were super tasty, just not big enough.  The ragout comes with some bread, but it could use more.  Otherwise, there wasn't a lot of substantial dishes to choose from.  They had a burger that was $13, and a grilled cheese sandwich that was $8.  I definitely think they could benefit by adding some more substantial "dinner" type dishes, especially if they're calling themselves a bistro.  I know they're going after the "tapas" thing, but what they're serving now isn't tapas anyway (see here for what actual tapas are <a href="/redir?url=http%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FTapas%23Common_Spanish_tapas&s=63248550c44ba6ac5c37738e666abe8c5b8f86e8fafb6109ad81cf0f18fcdf9f" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/…</a>), it's just small plates/appetizers.  I would say they could add in some panini sandwiches of different kinds, and some pasta dishes, maybe with fresh pasta.  We did not try any of the desserts since we decided to move on elsewhere to have dinner.  The cost per dish was not bad either but if you ordered enough to make an actual dinner, I think it would add up.  Our bill for 2 dishes and 1 glass of wine was $23.
So, would I come back here again? Â Sure, it's nice to have a quiet place available to go and have some wine and just chat with friends or a date. Â Would I plan to eat dinner here again? Â Absolutely not, unless they change their menu.
PS, they need to get a website that shows what they offer. Â Surprised they don't have one seeing as it's a new business.
This was a great treat for us after hitting tower theater for the Oscar Nominated Shorts. The food was smashing....stop here after the movies to begin a night of fun.....
It was a bit loud due to the band playing live music but if you sit out back its nice. It bit cold for winter weather. But come Spring & Summer this place is going to be BUSY.
Pleasant space, friendly bar manager, Saul--who is knowledgeable about the beverages (wine&beer), and knows good food--the other staff are not as knowledgeable or as personable--they don't carry enough CA wines (or local wines, for that matter) for my liking-I prefer Sonoma/Russian River/Alexander Valley pinots, deeper reds)--but, their wine list is vast--the Cheese Royale Sandwich w. Serrano ham was good, the manchego cheese plate was nice, the wild mushroom ragout was in good form--but, skip the bread pudding (it was definitely beginner bread pudding, and if you've ever had the bp at Echo or Rousseau, you'll be disappointed--all that to say, glad that Pinot is in the Tower, a warm, inviting space for adults, understated music NO TV's blaring, no dj--clean restroom and a large outdoor patio--watching the foot traffic from the Tower Theatre is entertainment enough--especially with a glass of Solorino Pinot--
Review Source:When I heard there was going to be a new Tapas & Wine bar in the Tower, I initially thought "finally a decent place for small plates and good wine." Unfortunately, the Tapas menu is as uninspiring as the decor. Maybe that is because they don't have any classically trained chefs that want to come to work in this area. I'm not sure what they did during the remodel when they took over the place from Palominos, but a coat of paint and new tile hardly counts as a remodel. It looks like they retained the same restaurant furniture and just slapped black table linens over them. They definitely lack on the creativity front.
First and foremost, your staff needs to learn the wine, beer and food menu. If a customer asks them a question on the drink selection, they should be able to give you an educated answer, and if you ask a question about a specific dish the response should not be the classic "everything is good" cop out. I want an answer that would be more in line with what would you order if you were going to eat here right now. Not that it will make my decision for me, but I want to hear your opinion on what your kitchen does very well before I make mine. I started out with a flight of 3 reds - a Spanish Garnacha, a South African Pinotage, and Argentinean Malbec. The bartender didn't really have much to say about the flight, nor did it seem like he had much wine knowledge. I was waiting for a friend to show up so I started out with the olives, and a Manchego cheese plate. The olives were pitted and garnished with orange zest that gave them a nice essence of orange. The absence of pits made them hassle free. The Manchego cheese seemed to be of the younger variety, kind of nutty and mild, whereas I am more of a fan of the Viejo style that is aged longer and has a sharper flavor. For being a local place that supports local products, they should look to Fresno State's Dairy which surprisingly produces a fantastic Manchego for being a University Farm product. Â Also, the cheese plate came with sliced apples, a few yellow raisins and some walnuts, but it was missing a dollop of gourmet fruit spread.
My friend finally joined the party and we both ordered another wine flight. He tried the Portuguese red, the Cote Du Rhone, and another Spanish red the bartender suggested. I ordered the Cote Du Rhone, a Rioja, and  a California Cab. I ended with another Spanish blend. Out of all the wines I tried, I really only thought the Cote Du Rhone was decent. The Pinotage will fit the bill for those that want a fruit forward wine, with very little tannin structure and a hint of sweetness (not my style of wine). Both being experienced wine guys, we couldn't really find anything on the wine menu that was worthwhile and I've had my share of old world and new. We decided to order the mussels and the grilled cheese royale. Actually my friend opted for the grilled cheese, I thought what do I want a grilled cheese sandwich at a Tapas place for? The mussels were the lone bright spot of the meal that we decided to cut short. My friend ordered a beer to go with his grilled cheese, but before he ordered he asked the gal behind the bar a question about one of the available selections and she said "I don't know"...I thought to myself then why are you working here? FAIL. The owner walked around the restaurant engaging his customers; eventually he came by to talk a little about the wine, but I didn't gather that he was very wine savvy either...maybe that is why his staff follows suit.
Let me help you out with the classic staples on a tapas menu: put a variety of croquettas, some with jamon, not just cheese, and some with chorizo. I'd really like to see croquettas de bacaloa, but that would be a pipe dream. If you have to ask what Bacaloa is, then you shouldn't be in the Tapas business. Also, where are the Gambas a la Plancha and the classic Gambas al Ajillo? You know that traditional shrimp dish served in garlic and olive oil? How about some Albondigas? Maybe some Datiles wrapped in bacon? How about some grilled Setas (mushrooms)? Patatas maybe? How about a spanish style salad on the menu for those non-meat eaters. Maybe a small sliced steak dish? And where the hell is the Paella? I just gave you all these ideas for free. Now imagine if you could mimic the creativity that fuses Spanish Tapas with molecular gastronomy (e.g. Chorizo lollipops). That would really be a pipe dream.
Overall: I was really rooting for this place, but I wasn't impressed. The place was crowded at dinner time, but that was most likely due to it being the new kid on the block...not because they were blowing people away with their Tapas menu. The idea of Tapas is a good concept, but you have to execute it to be successful. I understand that you want to introduce different wines to this market, but you have to pick some better Riojas. How about some after dinner Sherez selections? And most importantly have your staff try everything on the menu, even if it changes constantly.
We stopped by for some pre-dinner wine and appetizers. Â After a few selections I wanted to cancel our dinner plans and just stay at Pinot. Â The servers did a great job, the flavors were dialed in, and the wine selection was unique and made for a fun evening. Â The chef (Martin Franco) brought out one of our dishes personally and spent some time chatting with us.
Great new spot - if you haven't been here...then treat yourself!
Great place for having a conversation over wine and appetizers. I've eaten here twice now and have had two quite different experiences. My first experience was OK. I ended up giving them a second chance despite the service issues and noise levels. The atmosphere here is great however because of the tile and stone it fails to dampen the sound so it gets kind of loud. Our server was a bit rude the first time to say the least. It took a lengthy amount of time to get our drinks and when we asked what wine to pair with a dessert he responded, "Oh you're going to make it hard on me".... I was a bit confused, I assumed a server at a wine bar would have IDK... knowledge of wine? The second time our server was very sweet and very knowledgeable of the wine selection. We ate the mussels w/ chorizo  paired with the Ochoa pinot noir, delicious. The owners also came to our table to ask us of our experience and explain to us their goals for their business. Its nice to hear of a local restaurant supporting the growth of local businesses
Review Source:Ok, went back for a second shot at this place on a Wednesday evening btwn the holidays. Still so, so noisy...tough to have a conversation and most people were speaking quite loudly, I noticed.
On a positive note the beet salad was very fresh and beautiful, but the creme brulee was more like a pudding than a custard. The server, when asked about a style of wine, he defined what each name meant on the listing, but didn't actually describe the grape or blend at all.
Sorry...still not convinced....
Very impressed. The lady and I went a couple weeks ago before going to a play at Second Space. They were running a special on all wines for $6. Generous glasses and the waiter gave some great recommendations.
The food was excellent. We had the polenta with creme fraiche and mushrooms, cheese coquettes, the Mediterranean plate with humus, yogurt, and baba ganoush, and a few other dishes including the creme brulee. Everything thing was great and the prices seemed reasonable for what we got. The bill was around $60 for 5 or so dishes and 4 glasses of wine. I call that a good value!
Big thanks to Chef Martin Franco for coming out personally to greet us!
I also can't wait to see what they do with the gorgeous patio in the back for summer time.
I had an excellent glass of wine and assorted cheeses at the Pinot a couple days after it opened. Prices were very reasonable and my server was attentive but not bothersome, familiar with the menu, and had useful suggestions. The place had good energy and a fun, respectful crowd. I'll be back. Welcome to the Tower District Pinot.
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