Wine Adventures with the 2 Dollar Wine Connoisseurs: The Side Door Wine Bar in Mammoth Lakes

We were in Mammoth Lakes for the Thanksgiving weekend and stopped by a cool little wine bar at the area known as The Village.

Wine , Crepes, Paninis, and Fondue are featured at the coolest little wine bar called Side Door Cafe in Mammoth Lakes, CA.  We had stopped the night before for a Christmas Tree lighting with the kids and sat for a few minutes on the outdoor patio area --while the kids had kettle corn.   We knew we had to come back again the next night and check the place out.

We had a nice reasonably priced bottle of Russian River Valley Chardonnay called Pech Merle which was a very good, smooth Chardonnay typical of the Russian River Valley region. We enjoyed some great Swiss Gruyere Cheese Fondue and followed that up with a tasty S'mores Crepe!

The bar itself had a cool jazz/retro feel and was a great place to relax and get out of the cold.  This place is not only a wine bar/ but has a full cocktail menu as well, and in the mornings fronts as a coffee house (which is ideal for a snowy mountain resort).

Here is their website.....If you make it up to the mountains be sure to drop in.

http://www.sidedoormammoth.com/

The village is a really cool area that features lodging, shopping and restaurants.  They have fun outdoor games and fire pits that really brings an Aspen like feel to Mammoth Lakes.

http://villageatmammoth.com/

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The Red Barrel - The best little Wine Bar in Long Beach CA that you may not know about yet.

As we reported previously we were really excited when a wine bar opened up in our neighborhood.   Having visited the Red Barrel several times now  and our love for it keeps growing (along with their selection of wines).  Our favorite Chardonnay at the Red Barrel had been the American Wine Company Chardonnay ---but now they have added one of our favorites from another great place 320 Main in Seal Beach called Snapdragon.  We got lucky enough to stumble in on Tuesday evening which is currently  All-Day Happy Hour so the Snapdragon was only $5 a glass.  We are also looking forward to someday making it in on a Friday or Saturday night when they have live musical entertainment.

The service is always excellent no matter which waitress is there.  They are all very attentive and friendly.

 The food has been outstanding each time we have gone.  The menu has expanded since our first visit and all of the new items we have tried have been great.  This time around we ordered Flatbreads.  The Italian Hawaiian was perfect and the four cheese one was tasty as well.   

Just this past Tuesday we met up with some friends and this time
we tried the Kobe Beef Sliders with Applewood Smoked Bacon andBlue Cheese, and liking the flatbreads as much as we do, we gave the Margherita Flatbread a try. We loved them both!! 

 Check out the Red Barrel and visit often….we want this place to thrive and be around for a long time.

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Check out their facebook page here.....

https://www.facebook.com/theredbarrel?fref=ts

Next time we will discuss our Guide to some  of the Wine Bars of Long Beach

Wine Adventures with the 2 Dollar Wine Connoisseurs: The View at 1900 : The shortest Wine Bar Review Ever

The View at 1900 in Long Beach

(This was the view we were looking forward to)

We got a Living Social Groupon for Easter for a good deal at a brand new wine bar in Downtown Long Beach called The View at 1900.  It looked really nice online.  It had  a  sunset view overlooking the ocean with a good menu and the new wine machines, the kinds that work when you buy a card and then sample a whole bunch of wines. So I got off extra early from work and we drove on down there only to find out that it had already shutdown. Shutdown??  But it supposedly just opened. We don’t know  why or how it just wasn’t there anymore. It had just opened in March of this year 2014 but was already closed by May of 2014, with no explanation when we tried to redeem our Groupon??

We're  wondering if the location which was in a residential apartment tower doomed it.  They probably did the Living Social Deal to build awareness---but apparently not enough people showed up?  Who knows?   

So if you have a Living Social coupon for this place get a refund now and save yourself the drive.

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Wine Adventures with the 2 Dollar Wine Connoisseurs: A New Wine Bar in our Neighborhood The Red Barrel in Long Beach

A new wine bar within walking distance from our house???  Yep it has finally happened.  A wine bar in the neighborhood that we could actually walk to.  Earlier this week a friend of ours posted a picture on Facebook from a Wine bar in Long Beach.  It turns out that it is right around the corner from our home.  So we anxiously headed over there the first chance we had to check it out.  

The place is called the Red Barrel and it is located  near the intersection of  Ximeno and Atherton in Long Beach, CA. It sits in an odd spot between a Baskin Robbins and a laundromat.  They are so new that they didn't even have permanent signage yet, but the inside is really nice and immediately makes you forget where you are.  They have nice ambiance and the decor includes wine artwork created by the owner herself, and the kind of music you would expect in a nice wine bar.  

The staff was extremely friendly. We loved our waitress Emily, she was outstanding!! Not to mention this place has some really good food. We shared a Grilled Cheese Panini with Maple bacon and a Margarita Flat bread pizza, all of the food was made fresh and did we mention it was delicious. The wine we  tried included  Black Stallion Estate -which was a 2012 Chardonnay that had a crisp apple taste to it.  We also tried a wine called American Wine Company Chardonnay from 2012, this one was from Sonoma and had the buttery taste that we love.  Both wine and food choices were exceptional and we just can't wait to go back again!! So we just wanted to spread the word and let people know about this great new place in our neck of the woods.

Up next we will talk about a really cool wine bar we visited in Seattle while up there for a wedding in fall of 2013.   Look for that soon and check out our other Wine Adventures.


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Wine Adventures with the 2 Dollar Wine Connoisseurs: Things almost got Hostile at the Hostile Grape in Las Vegas….or how I almost got screwed out of $18.

As a part of my Birthday and Valentine’s Day we headed to Las Vegas for the weekend in order to see the Eagles at the MGM Grand.  On our list of places to go was The Hostile Grape at the M Resort,  which is located just off the freeway as you enter into Las Vegas.   We had looked it up online and thought that it looked like a really cool wine bar to visit.   We found the Hostile Grape and almost exited before our adventure began because it sounded like there was a stand up comedian inside and we didn’t want to walk in mid act.

I said that we should push on and so we ventured inside.   It ended up being a musician that looked like a Johnny Depp impersonator that they had found wandering the streets of Vegas.   He was actually decent playing a wide range of songs that included an odd version of Like a Virgin on the guitar.   We overheard a couple of guys talking on the way in about how it was the assisted living wine bar, since the crowd was  much older.    We sat down at an open table and waited….and waited until finally deciding that maybe they don’t come to your table here.  It was the kind of wine bar that had the self serve machines that we had enjoyed using previously at the Splash Wine bar in San Diego and the Las Vegas Hilton.  

  

                

We purchased a $50 wine card –that also had a onetime $5 card activation fee  (if you come back again you just bring the same card).

We ordered a cheese plate which wasn’t on the menu that night (since they were having a special Valentine’s Day menu featuring food from the Steak House Anthony’s).   The cheese plate was actually pretty good especially the hardened goat cheese with honey comb.    

We began to wander around to sample the over 100 wines available in search of a good Chardonnay.  We didn’t really find one that we liked.  The tastings were overpriced  compared got compared to similar wine bars that use the  same type of machines.

My favorite wine was a sweet Moscato called Sip and a Cabernet from  Faust winery that we both enjoyed.

About $32 into our card it stopped working.  I had to go up to the bar and let them know that is was giving me an error message and that I should have about $18 left on it.   The bartender told me that has never happened before and that I had used up the card.  He was able to pull up on the screen and tell me what the last wine I had sampled was and continued to argue with me that the cards had never malfunctioned before and that I had used the card up.    I continued to argue my point.   At this point I was basically being called a liar by the bartender .  He asked if I would like to talk to the manager. 

  " Sure" I said  and then suggested-"If your machine can tell you which drinks we have tried it should be able to tell how much we have used".    He added up the amounts and then finally admitted that we should still have $18.25 left on our card.  The manager came over and told him that they had been having problems with cards today.    The manager then fixed the card adding the amount left back onto the card.    I didn't get an apology for basically being called a liar about the issues with the card.... which was really annoying. 

We thought that maybe that is where the bar got its name the Hostile Grape from,  since they argue with the customers.  We joked that maybe it should be called the Angry Grape.    Our original plan was to get another glass of wine once the card was used up,  but after this incident we decided to just finish off the card and head to our hotel.    Unfortunately this wasn't as easy a task.   The card died again at about $9.00 mark and we had to wait a good 10 minutes for the manager to finish gabbing with a set of customers.    Upon bringing the problem to his attention again --we were given a new card....which we used up and then left.   No apologies,   no I'm sorry for your inconvenience twice,  nothing.   The $5 activation fee was a waste---since I don't think we will be returning due to the bad customer service  from this place that we had really high hopes for.   Let's hope that our next wine adventure goes better.......

Stay tuned for some of our 2013 adventures that we are slowly getting around to writing about.

Wine Adventures with the $2 Wine Connoisseurs: The Cellar in San Clemente

Once a year we head down to San Clemente for a fun getaway.  We love sitting on the balcony enjoying a glass of wine and pizza from the pizza place right next to the pier.  San Clemente is a really cool little Beach community with a great main street for shopping and dining.   This year we decided to hit up a fun little Wine Bar as well and now have an even better reason to look forward to our yearly trip.

The Cellar is  located on Avenida Del Mar, the main street that leads down to the beach.  It was a fun little Wine and Cheese bar that had great wines and FANTASTIC food.  I would advise getting there a little early because the place was packed when we arrived on a Friday night. We settled in at a spot at the piano listening to the entertainment and enjoying a Wine Flight and some really good appetizers.  We may have a new tradition for our yearly trip.

Whipped Goat Cheese Crostini's topped with preserves and grapes YUM!! 

The Cellar offers up a swanky chic kind of vibe. The live piano entertainment is a big plus. 

The food is excellent and overall this place is exactly what we enjoy most about a good wine bar. 

Just wish it was a little closer to home so we could visit more often!!

This was painted on the wall in the womens restroom!! 

If you get a chance to visit, let us know what you thought of your experience. We'd love to hear from you!! 

And for your final photo here is one last look at just a partial assortment of what the Cheese shop has to offer.  

Check out their website below

http://thecellarsite.com/

A Splash in San Diego

We had a day trip to San Diego for a friend's birthday and decided to try something a little fun before the dinner.  We hit up a fun little wine bar in San Diego called Splash.

They have wines by the glass and happy hour specials.

They have a  style of Wine Tastings that we personally first encountered at the Las Vegas Hilton last year.  The method is that they have  bunch of bottles hooked up to machines and you pay for a wine card that allows you a bunch of small tasting of a lot of different wines.  So instead of just doing larger tastings of about 5 wines you can taste up to about 10 different wines in smaller tastings.   

We really enjoy this style of wine tasting.  It gives you a choose your own adventure experience and is really fun.   The Splash Wine bar had a cool vibe with Breakfast at Tiffany's playing in the background...and had a wonderful  Goat Cheese boat appetizer as well.

So if you are in San Diego and want a reasonably priced wine experience drop into Splash

Here is the link to the Splash Wine Bar in San Diego

http://asplashofwine.com/

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