August 9, 2021
New NoDa wine bar will serve small-producer selections
Bar à Vins comes from sommeliers Jeff Kellogg and Natalie Stewart
Bar à Vins will open in NoDa next year next to Ruby’s Gift on North Davidson Street. Kristen Wile/UP
After years of hanging out together drinking wine at home, sommeliers Kellogg and Natalie Stewart are opening up the wine bar they wished they could go to instead. Bar à Vins will be in the heart of NoDa, at the intersection of North Davidson and 35th streets, and will open next year. The wine bar will serve the same style of lesser-known producers that Stewart is known for curating at Fin & Fino, where she is currently wine director. Stewart will remain in that position until Bar à Vins’ opening nears.
Kellogg also has a background in hospitality, though he has most recently worked helping his wife, Stephanie, run her wine distribution business, Kellogg Selections.
“I helped her get that started and running and I think running really well,” Kellogg says. “But where I belong is in restaurants, taking care of people, and in wine. So I’ll be doing this.”
The wine bar and shop will serve a small by-the-glass list with rotating selections, as well as a selection of bottles that can be purchased for retail price and taken home or enjoyed on-site.
“You’re going to have that sommelier experience that you would get in a restaurant — we’re going to help you pick out bottles,” Stewart says. “But then you’re paying retail pricing, and get to sit at a table, sort of that retail/wine bar combo.”
He and Stewart met while working at 131 Main more than a decade ago, and share a passion for highlighting winemakers beyond the big names. The idea for the wine bar was refined on nights the Kelloggs hosted Stewart at their home to enjoy wine and conversation.
“Our two favorite places to hang out are wine bars with great selections, but also dive bars,” Kellogg says. “If you can combine that comfort of why everybody loves hanging out in their neighborhood dive bar, with being able to drink great wine? That’s my … habit.”
Snacks options available to customers will similarly straddle the line between low-brow and upscale, with offerings ranging from potato chips to tinned seafood and caviar. The interior of the wine bar will be designed by Kindred Studio, the new business arm launched by Katy Kindred of Kindred Restaurant. Stewart says the interior will be inspired by the unassuming wine bars you find in old cities, like Paris or Rome, where you wander into a doorway off an alley to find a fantastic wine bar.
So exciting!