Wine + Tapas = Fabulous downtown happy hour

Believe it or not, I am still trying to use up all of my gift cards from the restaurant week contest I won back in January.  You wouldn't think that it would be so hard to use up 27 gift cards, would you?  At any rate, I'm down to about 8 or 9 more places now, since L & I finally used my gift card to Gervais & Vine last Friday.


We met up after work, had a couple of glasses of wine, and split some food.  Very chill, relaxing happy hour to end the week.  The vibe in G&V is pretty laid back - simple, colorful, and comfortable.  As soon as the holidays are over (read: as soon as I have a discretionary income again), I want to make G&V a regular happy hour spot.


I may have forgotten to write down what kind of wine we were each drinking, but it was very good.  I had a pinot noir that was incredible.  It was exactly what I wanted, and tasted great with everything we ordered.  L had a cabernet that I didn't like as much, but it certainly wasn't bad.  I wish I could remember what kinds they were...


But let's move on to the part you really care about: the food.  G&V's menu doesn't seem huge, but good luck deciding what you want.  Everything sounded great, and it took us awhile to actually decide.  We ended up deciding to split a couple of tapas items and them to share the pizza of the day.  We figured that we could always order more if we were still hungry.


We ordered the garlic-parmesan fries with spicy aioli and the she crab spread to start.  The fries were incredibly well seasoned, and the spicy aioli lived up to its name.  It wasn't over the top, but there was a nice little kick to it.  I wouldn't have minded if the fries had been a little crispier, but that's just because I like crunchy fries.  They were certainly cooked well and covered in grated parmesan and garlic.  I would very strongly recommend these to anyone who goes to G&V.

You can actually see the parmesan that was sprinkled all over.

I don't think I really have words to describe the she crab spread.  Made with a mixture of crab, crab roe, garlic, sherry, cream cheese, and parmesan, it was so good, that both L & I contemplated licking the inside of the ramekin just to make sure we didn't miss anything.  It was creamy and seafood-y and served with crisp crackers and crusty bread.  As a nice complement, there were also red grapes and baby pickles alongside.  I will be hard pressed to order something other than this spread the next time I go to G&V.

Check out the bubbly crusty top of this spread.  So so good.

Finally, we ordered the pizza of the day.  On the day in question, the pizza (cooked in a stone pizza oven) had chicken, pesto, tomatoes, olives, and feta.  We devoured this thing.  The crust was crispy, but not burnt, and the ingredients were fresh.  The tomatoes were divine.  Like everything else we had that night, I would order this again in a heartbeat.

Look at the color on those tomatoes!

Because G&V's seating is so intimate, we also got the opportunity to see what everyone around us was ordering and eating.  The asparagus is definitely on my list of things to try.  I will be raving about G&V for weeks.  It was so good, so filling, and so comfortable.  I can't wait to go back again, and maybe sit at the bar this time so that I can watch all of the awesome food being prepared.

Final Rating

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