A few months ago, the much-altered former location of the Zebra Room (subsequently Brothers Coffee, the Zebra Lounge, and others) took its latest incarnation as a wine bar: Enology. It’s the kind of place you might actually expect to do pretty well in these reaches of Upper NW. The setting is very pretty, though the outside tables have legs which make crossing yours entirely awkward. The wine list is extensive, and VERY EXPENSIVE. The cheapest glasses are $7, but most are $9-$11.
The list is organized by color and alphabet, with no hints whatsoever about each wine’s character. Our waitress was very sweet and made recommendations, which were 50-50. She didn’t really know much about the wines, it seemed, except for set scripts. Also, they only had one type of glass: reds and whites all came in Chardonnay glasses. This wouldn’t bother me at a restaurant charging $5 a glass, but for a place supposedly showcasing wine, and also charging not lightly for them, this is unacceptable. Silly as it sounds (and I’ve only recently become aware of it), the right glass really makes wine taste better.
Food is similarly expensive ($10 for a flatbread, $7-$9 (small) and $12-$14(large) for salads, etc.), but seems pretty OK. We had the Loramie Creek flatbread, with “goat cheese, local mushrooms, snipped chives.” The bread was nice and soft, though it did have harder sections (uneven heat?), and the goat cheese was spread nicely and very flavorful. I thought it overpowered the mushrooms (only just barely cooked, if at all), but my companion disagreed. The cheeses look and, according to my mother are, very good.
Happy hour Monday (goes all night!) means $2 off “eclectic” wines – listed separately with no prices, so you have to page through the regular menu, not to mention the lack of descriptions – beers, cocktails, and some of the food ($8 off the large cheese plate is great, except that it’s still $50). Happy hour doesn’t mean a cheap time, but a bit more affordable for a once-in-a-while trek to the northlands (or a stop after (before?) visiting the Cathedral).
All told, Enology is a nice place to go for an occasional Something Different, but I doubt that, even if I were wealthy and lived in the neighborhood, it’d be a regular haunt.
Enology Wine Bar
3238 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20016
202.362.0362