The most impressive businessmen are the ones who've toiled at every aspect of their industry, rising from the mail room to white-collar prison. For a wine bar that benefits from bottom-up experience, check out Bacaro LA, soft-opening Wed.

A modern-minimalist sleeve with banquette seating and 12-15 rotating selections scrawled on a slate wall, Bacaro LA was started up by a man who's paid his vino dues: as a sommelier (at AOC), a retail employee (Silverlake Wine), and a wine-speakeasy founder (in the courtyard of a friend's apartment -- he's the one who buzzed you in). The focus'll be on small-production Italians, like the dry white Erblaluce di Caluso and the peppery, rose-scented Lacrima di Morro D'Alba, with occasional interlopers like the Aussie chardonnay Woop Woop -- slang for "middle of nowhere", or a harrowing sighting of Arsenio Hall's ghost. The in-the-works menu's small-bites (topped bruschetta, charcuterie, truffle butter panini, etc); wine flights are offered in pairings, not trios, because you can better compare flavor notes with two, and are too stupid to juggle three.

To celebrate their opening, Bacaro LA's throwing a $10 open bar/food party this Saturday -- a questionable business decision, because open bars should generally forego small-production Italians in favor of large-production bladders-in-a-box.