Fox City Certified Good.

Summary

The Wine House is hands down the classiest place in Old Town Fairfax. The lighting is low and half of this single-room restaurant is lined with shelves of a curated wine bottle collection. This 3-D wallpaper effectively means this is a hybrid restaurant-wine store. It’s almost always full, even on Monday nights, like tonight, but no one is going to try and oust you – it’s just too classy. 

Basic Review

Food is traditional French peasant food. Ingredients are high quality and slow-cooked. The jus, gravy, skin on the chicken, glaze on the carrots – its the prettiest kind of rustic you can imagine. I am addicted to their Boef Burgundy, but finally tried something different (coq au vin) and it was just as delicious. The string beans in particular were so fresh I suspect they have a vine growing in the back store rooms somewhere.

Wine selection is vast and the staff is knowledgeable about what they sell. Beer selection is nominal, but a range from obscure goses to run of the mill basics like Heineken. I’ve never tried it, but am down to cosplay a basic b!tch for an afternoon and get their “frosé” — a boardwalk style frozen cement maker tumbles rosé into a slushy!! There’s an espresso machine and alc-free sodas (Coke not Bubly). They will let you buy a bottle off the wall to drink, but don’t look for them on a menu — get nosy and walk around because the wall bottles aren’t on a menu. If you have to excuse yourself around another patron, they’ll let you — I cannot stress enough the passive upscale clientele.

Prices are high but 100% worth it if its a special occasion, you have to over-wow someone with your refined palette, or fake how high a tax bracket you’re in.

Reading / Writing Review

Being Left Alone: No one is ever going to bother you at The Wine Bar. The staff are all non-conformist tattooed women with Edna Mo style glasses. They will spout off wine knowledge to you, answer questions about specials, and buff glasses at the same time. They will ask you interesting questions about yourself and compliment your weird artsy style. They will, most importantly, ignore you if you are either keeping your head down on your notebook/laptop or talking to a fellow writer/patron. 

Lighting: The lighting is my favorite fetish: just brighter enough than candlelight to be functional. 

Table Space: If you’re at a bar or one of the 6 top high tops, loads of space to hold your notebook, drink, menu, and still have a buffer between you and the next patron. 

GETTING Space: Not likely if you arrive at actual dinner time (530-8pm every day of the week). Even the bar will be packed. However! If you arrive early you will be allowed to burrow in like a tick. Between 230pm and 5pm it’s empty. 

Overall!

I love this place and am motivated to make more money just so I can sit at their bar more often.

Post Script

This is my first review and I, uh, didn’t think to take real photos, so this is just what I was drinking and reading while writing the review….

Note on the Rating System

We review bars and restaurants and libraries and parks and other such public spaces based first one normal grading factors — like how good is the place at being the place it wants to be. But for all of us, as Readers and Writers, we then scrutinize whether you can use that space for your purposes. Let us know if there are factors you’d like us to include!