Downing Street Wine Bar & Morandi

Last week I went for pre-dinner drinks at a new wine bar on Downing Street owned by the guys behind Blue Ribbon. All I can say is that this place rocks! Well, it doesn't exactly "rock" per se, but it's an AMAZING wine bar and now my favorite! The space is small, with only about 14 backless stools spaced around a bar and a small counter along the back wall. I dread to think how hard it will be to get in here once this place is discovered, but as usual I have to share it with my loyal readers! The room is gorgeous with big windows to the street, lots of wood and wine bottles. The wine here comes in 4 forms - a "taste", a glass, a flight or a bottle. KK & I both started off with the bubbles flight (3 reasonable sized "tastes" - $17). We were SUPER excited since one was a sparkling Vouvray (which we both now LOVE since our Wine 101 class). Next we dove in to a flight of reds (we composed the flight on our own, but they do have pre-arranged ones if you prefer to follow their lead). All were excellent. If you aren't in the mood for wine, they do carry beer & spirits as well. The staff (especially Margot & Sean) are extremely knowledgeable, friendly, down to earth & fun. The atmosphere is very W. Village neighborhood meets aspiring wine geek. The music is soothing, reminiscent of old Portishead but a bit more up beat. They also have quite a few nibbles which we passed on but looked amazing. I can't wait to get back there and dive right in!

Once the wine kicked in we were in full-tilt boogie mode and raced over to claim our 8pm ressie at the new Keith McNally joint Morandi. In the end we wished we hadn't rushed since we had to wait 1/2 hr for our table to open up. (Sidenote: at this point, to get into this place you have to call at 9am exactly one week before you want to go. We called at 5pm day of and they managed to squeeze us in. If you aren't a planner, that way may be your best bet.) The place was utter chaos. It was impossible to get anywhere NEAR the bar, so we opted to just wait by the door. It was EXTREMELY loud - so loud that everytime the waiter spoke to us he had to repeat things at least 3 times and then we usually gave up since we couldn't hear him. The service could've been better as well - he always seemed to be there when we didn't need him and nowhere in site when we did.

For those who don't keep up with musical chairs, the chef, Jody Williams, came over from nearby Gusto. I never went to Gusto but had always heard it was great so was excited for Williams' cuisine. Sadly, I was extremely disappointed. We started off with fried artichokes - WAY too greasy. That was followed by the frito misto - some fried calamari (really good but for some reason EXTREMELY heavy - almost like they were soaked in butter and then deep fried), 2 giant prawns with shell & head on (that was just wrong in a fried seafood dish - where was the batter!?!?!), and 2 full-on sardines (I swear the tail of mine moved - YIKES! - well, not really but that item was not for me!). For a main, I had the bucatini amatriciana. My favorite Italian dish but such a bland disappointment. I love that the NY Magazine review described this dish as "a tastless sludge of tomato sauce". Even worse was KK's dish - she had the bolognese which was served over egg noodles (wrong again!) and all you could taste was nutmeg (WAY too overwhelming!). In the end I recommend skipping this place entirely and heading back to the tried & true McNally Pastis for the croque monsieur!