Vino Bella Wine & Espresso Bar

I came here with a friend to see her bf play live at this spot. The place was packed, and this was around 8pm on a Thursday night. Vino Bella is pretty narrow and darkly lit, but is very cute. Luckily my friend arrived first and saved us a table because there was literally no other bar spots or seats available.

I generally had a nice time and enjoyed the location and atmosphere, but I was a little annoyed at how many items they were out of. My friend and I wanted to get a bottle of champagne and split it, and the bar was out of ALL choices of champagne, besides a very expensive bottle so I just got a glass and she got a dark ale. We ended up choosing a chardonnay that was also unavailable (!) and we were given a replacement that turned out to be Hogue brand wine. I was really disappointed as I wanted to try something new and different from my normal favorites.

I was really surprised at how many items were unavailable, I'm not sure if that is a normal thing that happens there or if I just picked a bad night. I'm willing to give Vino Bella another try so we'll see what happens next time!

We are another victim of the $5 per person minimum and I was made to feel like I was wasting the time of the bartender.  My husband and I dropped in on a Wednesday afternoon and the place was nearly empty.  He ordered a glass of wine and I said that I was actually just going to have a soda.  I was quickly told that to sit at the bar, I had to order something to adhere to the $5 minimum.  I was actually going to order food until I was treated so rudely.  If the place was packed, I could understand wanting to have space at the bar for higher tabs, but the place was empty.  After I had said I wasn't going to be ordering any wine, she stopped talking to me entirely and we had to flag her down to ask for our check, because she stopped talking to us.

Now, Claude is a delight to chat with and the other time I have been there, he was the fellow who waited on me and he was lovely, knowledgable, and hospitable.  The food I have had was good and the wine flights are fun.

We also really wanted to like this place. Cute atmosphere, great location, and a nice wine selection. What we got was OK customer service, terrible food, and a price tag that would have warranted Canlis. Do yourself a favor and go to the Flat Iron or Jak's.