The Wine Guy Bistro Wine Shop & Wine Bar

Just went for the 1st time for lunch and can't wait to try it for dinner - loved the flight and the service was fantastic. I can't wait to go back for dinner - I just wish it was open later - it would be a great place to go after a play or the symphony for a glass of wine and a light
bite

I had dinner there, so cannot rate the happy hour.  The food I had was good and the wine was very good.  The service could have been better, but my service was not as bad as some of the other reviews I read, which I would have been shocked if I had received that service (e.g., like not suggesting wine pairing with the food).  I ordered a wine flight which was really nice.  A $10.00 corkage fee if you bought a bottle there was a little outrageous especially since you bought the wine there.  Most places that are BYOB charge a max of $5.00.  The main thing I was impressed was number of gluten free dishes there were.  It seemed like about half the menu was and the flatbreads and pasta dishes you could order a gluten free version of.  I was with someone who is totally gluten free and it was so nice to see her have such a variety of choices at a menu.   I had the Champagne Butter Poached Lobster which someone recommended, it was very good.
When I went it had not been open long, so I will give it a little more time and go back and reevaluate it. But I would still highly recommend it to anyone gluten free or to anyone that has a gluten free friend who they would like to have a nice dinner with.

I had high hopes for this place...

A friend and I went to dinner here on a Saturday night. Being that it's a WINE BISTRO, I expected an extensive wine list and an educated staff. Neither one happened. The wine menu is weird, offering pedestrian wines as either flights or glasses, or bottles with a corkage fee. The only other option is to go peruse the wine shop for a bottle on the other side of the place, which by the way, is HUGE. Though the idea is charming, it's a bit awkward to leave the table and go searching for a wine in another part of the restaurant - why not just provide a wine list??

But here's where it gets bizarre - when we asked our server for a wine recommendation that we would both be happy with based on our food selections, menu or store, her answer was "we don't believe in pairing wine and food (?!???!?) because we want you to be happy with the wine, so we wouldn't want to recommend something based on what your food order in case you don't like it"  Come again?

There are no words to describe how off-base and ridiculous that is - are they trying to reinvent the relationship between food and wine and think we midwest podunks will buy into it? Sounds a lot like a misguided and thinly veiled excuse for not training your staff properly, not a dining philosophy.... Give me a break, and some credit.

I barely picked my jaw up off the floor when our server came back asking if we wanted to taste any menu wines - as I read them off to her, she interrupted me and said "just tell me the number"  Then she brought our tastings and actually dive-bombed our conversation as if we were all friends. I like a friendly staff but the lack of professionalism was astounding. Our bottle of white wine was then served in a wine holder with nothing to keep it cold. Hmmmm....

The food was decent. I will try going to the bar another time and hope for a better experience since I live next door, but I fear this will be merely a local wine shop for me.

Too bad. With a little effort and sophistication, this place could be a life raft in a sea of bad food chains. Instead they seem content to join the ranks of mediocrity.