Terroir Tribeca

Terroir: people, places, history, the grape and the table. All things Terroir, at all times.

The Extras: Not in the mood for straight-up wine? Try one of the wine cocktails.

Fun Fact: Check out the bizarre wine menus--the graphic designer who created them was nominated for a James Beard Award.

Like its seasoned sibling in the East Village, the TriBeCa outpost of Terroir has a large, eclectic wine list. Co-owner and sommelier Paul Grieco's obsession with Riesling wines has translated southward (there's even a Finger Lakes Riesling on tap) and so has his proclivity for including many affordable but not-easy-to-find bottles. There are two dozen reds and about an equal amount of whites...

Hearth and Insieme's Marco Canora and Paul Grieco bring comfort and warmth to the otherwise dusty concept of a wine bar. Terroir views the fermented pressings of grapes as characteristic flags planting in different soils, a conception that gives them extraordinary grasp over the nuances of flavor and body that dictate a wine's most useful purpose and makes them masters of the recommended glass....

These "unstuffy" enotecas are touted for "enormous" wine lists paired with "tasty" Italian small plates; "well-versed", "down-to-earth" service is another plus, but "don't forget the credit card" as all those nibbles can quickly "add up."

Terroir eschews wine-snob culture, while welcoming genuine wine fanatics with open arms. It does come with credentials: Co-owner Paul Grieco used to oversee the wine service at Gramercy Tavern. The wine bar's menu (which is not so much a menu as a quirky three-ring binder filled with cheeky cartoons, poems, songs, and essays) features more than 50 wines by the glass, many of them obscure and,...