|
Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...
|
Here are the stories behind two new wine bars along the Peninsula that aim to foster conversations and introduce you to your new favorite wines.
Elleary Wine
Take a trip to Napa in a new downtown Los Altos wine bar so small, it only seats eight (10 if you count outdoor seating).
Replacing jewelry shop Judy’s Collection along 2nd Street, Los Altos Hills residents Shawn and Vivien Karimi opened the tasting room for their Napa winery Elleary Wine on April 5. The wine bar is open only on Friday and Saturday evenings, but Shawn said he plans to eventually expand the hours. Passersby will notice a vibrant mural along the side of the building depicting lush green vineyards, sprawling hills and a blue sky accented with purple clouds.
“Napa’s landscape is beautiful, and it takes you away from normal things that go on in your life,” Shawn said. “When I go to Napa, I’m in a different world immediately, the minute I see the wineries. So the idea was to look at it and say, ‘This thing is taking me two hours away from here to Napa.’”
And while the size of the tasting room is quite small, it’s the perfect size for the Karimis, who are busy operating their own non-wine-related businesses (Shawn is in medical imaging and Vivien is a partner at Deloitte) as well as raising two kids.
“We’ve been wanting to open up a tasting room for a while, and we wanted to open a smaller tasting room that doesn’t require 60 hours a week of attention,” Shawn said. “We can display the wine, interested parties can come sit down, have a tasting and some cheese, and we can talk about wine.”
Shawn, originally from Iran, and Vivien, originally from China, met at Shawn’s Persian New Year party in Los Altos Hills in 2006. (Some Elleary wine labels mistakenly say the couple met in 2007, but Vivien says “it’s men’s memory versus reality.”)
“I happened to have a friend in town from Asia staying with me,” Vivien said. “I thought, ‘What a wonderful opportunity to show her this different culture.’ So I said yes to the invitation (from my dentist)…and we showed up at this Persian New Year party. And that’s the house we’re living in right now.”
Shawn has a slightly different version (“the correct version,” he said) of how they met. Two weeks prior to hosting his New Year party, he ran into an old clergy friend at a Persian store in Sunnyvale who asked why Shawn wasn’t married.
“He said, ‘Have you asked God to give you the right person?’” Shawn said. “I said, ‘No, I have not.’ He said, ‘We’ll do this together right now. We’ll raise our hands to the sky and ask God to give you the right woman in two weeks.’ So we asked God. Two weeks later, we had the Persian New Year. Guess who walks in through the door?”
When Shawn and Vivien first met, neither of them knew much about wine. Four years later on Father’s Day, they had their first child, Elle. The following year on Christmas Eve, they had their second child, Ary. After years of tasting wines all over California and Shawn studying winemaking at UC Davis, they decided to open Elleary and Karimi Family Vineyards in Napa, which had its first harvest in 2016.
“I remember my daughter was 30 days old when she was on her first trip to Napa,” Vivien said. “Within the first three months, she went there at least four or five times. Both my kids know all the wineries that we have visited. They can name when we visited and what’s the uniqueness of that winery.”
The Los Altos tasting room offers seven cabernets, one merlot and one chardonnay, all made with grapes harvested from the Elleary Napa vineyard or in Los Altos Hills from 2016 to 2021. In addition to buying bottles previously only available online ($52-$95), customers can purchase pours by the glass ($12-$23) or tasting flights ($30-$45) and snack on cheese, olives and crackers.
The Karimis are more than happy to answer any questions about their wines, but if you want to know Shawn’s favorite wine, he’ll tell you “there’s no such thing as a favorite wine.”
“Each one represents a year that the grape is grown in and every year is different,” he said. “It takes nine months from the time the bud breaks on the vines until it gets harvested in September or October. There’s lots of elements involved that make the grape change, and that represents that year. It will have its own elements and you’re going to appreciate it for that.”
The Karimis are proud to share their wines with their community and welcome feedback from guests.
“(Our goal) is to really connect with the community and share our unique product, which is a very family-collaborated product,” Vivien said. “I think we made it very well in terms of the quality of the wine…We’ve spent a lot of effort to get the best quality for the price that is reasonable for the community here.”
Elleary Wine, 188 2nd St., Los Altos. Open Friday and Saturday 5-8:30 p.m.
a²
With little signage and no flashy lighting, it’s easy to miss that there’s a new wine bar on B Street in downtown San Mateo. There is one exception – if it’s a Friday night, you’ll likely be drawn in by the sound of live jazz music.
“a² is all about helping local businesses and other local artists,” said a² co-owner Asia Su. “Whether you’re a musician or artist, you can come to us, and we will try our best to help you – let you perform or have your paintings on our walls.”
Walk into the unassuming Japanese wabi-sabi inspired wine bar and you’ll find paintings on display by local artists that are also available for purchase. Local bands perform live jazz music Friday nights, and the owners hope to eventually introduce live music Thursday and Saturday nights as well. The menu has 30 wines available by the glass ($15-$28) or bottle ($60-$295), five tasting flights ($35-$45) and five charcuterie boards ($16-$42).
“I want a² to be a place where people come and have a great time, just relax, you can chit-chat with your friends, you can enjoy a glass of wine, enjoy some music, have some conversations with other people,” Su said.
a² soft opened March 1 and plans to have its grand opening later this month. The name of the bar isn’t a wine term: It’s a play off the owners’ names.
“My partner and I are so lazy: My name is Annie. My partner’s name is Asia,” said a² co-owner Annie Zhao with a laugh. “We’re two lazy ladies. a² is simple; it’s easy to remember.”
This is Zhao’s second time owning a bar in San Mateo. About 15 years ago, she owned and operated T2, a bar that Su was a regular at. The pair became great friends and bonded over their shared love of wine.
“I love wine,” Zhao said. “I love doing tastings in Napa. It’s my hobby. I think if your work is what you love, you’ll do it better.”
While Su has never owned a bar before, she has invested in a variety of businesses, including real estate, recycling and kitchen cabinets. She had her debut investing in the food and beverage industry with Michelin-starred Niku Steakhouse in San Francisco in 2019.
“I love wine bars,” Su said. “I always wanted to open one. I just never had time or the right partner to do it. I have so many businesses I need to look after. But when Annie said, ‘We should do a wine bar,’ I said, ‘OK, let’s do this.’”
Su and Zhao curate the wine list together and plan to rotate the menu every four months. The menu includes a selection of sparkling wine, white wine, rosé, new world red, Bordeaux red and organic wine.
a², 117 S B St., Suite A, San Mateo. Open Wednesday through Sunday 5-10 p.m.