San Francisco

Wine bars are great for casual access to restaurant-quality vino options; then again, restaurants are great for serving you the food that'll keep those options from later sluicing into a gutter. Opening today, the middle ground: La Vinoteca.

From a 48-year industry vet and a just-graduated Milanese sommelier, LV's a classy walk-in Marina nook that fills the gap between a too-full-to-drink sit-down and the typical "Can I please get some more bread?" wine bar. Its vino chops are front-and-center, with a behemoth polished marble bar and a 1,200-bottle rack whose hugeness cuts drastically into seating capacity (but if this attracts you, they've won, because a customer on the sauce is worth two on the wagon). Grub-wise, LV offers typical bites (crostini, cheese plates, etc), but also provides far heartier fare, e.g.: canneloni stuffed w/ Niman beef and three cheeses; prosciutto & 3-cheese stuffed crespelli; and grilled polenta w/ honey and "Colonnata lardo" -- so intensely regulated, it's considered the champagne of pig lipids.

As of now, LV opens at 4pm for early dinner/people who've given up; soon though they'll start serving daily brunch, a.k.a. the happy middle between drinking wine in the morning, and drinking wine in the afternoon.