Restaurant Openings

Photo: Noah Sheldon

Bridge Vineyards Tasting Room
20 Broadway, at Kent Ave., Williamsburg; 718-384-2800
Partners Greg Sandor and Paul Wegimont named their seven-year-old Cutchogue winery Bridge Vineyards, and this week, that name becomes particularly apt. “We want to bridge the distance between city and winery,” says Sandor, who collaborates with Long Island legend Eric Fry on Bridge’s estate-grown Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, and Riesling. Those varietals, along with a line of table wines called Brooklyn Red, White, and Rosé, will be available to taste and to purchase this weekend, when Sandor and Wegimont open a satellite tasting room in the Brooklyn shadow of the Williamsburg Bridge. Their farm-winery license allows them to sell and pour only New York State wines, including, besides their own, a Hudson Valley Pinot Noir and a Finger Lakes Riesling. Later this month, the partners will start pairing finger foods like stromboli and panini with $5 tastes of wine, and selling locally produced groceries like Long Island goat cheese and Sang Lee Farms salads. By next fall, just in time for the 2008 harvest, the space will function as a bona fide “urban winery,” with clients doing their own barrel sampling and small-batch blending.

Restaurant Openings