Profile

This intimate but airy gem is a café by day and a candlelit beer and wine bar at night. Aside from some low-key local regulars, V Bar provides refuge to bespectacled NYU grad kids just looking for a subtle Pinot Noir to compliment their budding professorial beards and the stray tourist who just hit the chess shops on Thompson (the bar has a house board if you're inclined to play). Chalkboards display a rotating selection of over 25 vinos by the glass and sippers at the rustic, flower-decorated bar can be overheard expounding Sideways-style on what hard-nosed writer Nick Tosches calls “rancid grape juice.” Oenophobes can choose from among 40 reasonably priced beers, including an excellent selection of Belgians. — Andrew Paine Bradbury