B.Y.O.G. Wine Bar opens in Port Jefferson

"Wine bar" doesn’t begin to describe what’s going on at B.Y.O.G. Wine Bar, newly opened in Port Jefferson.

First of all, it’s self-serve. There are five temperature-controlled dispensing machines, each one holding four bottles of wine. Read the descriptions and prices, then tap the machine with an electronic-chipped card (issued by the server) and select which wine and how much of it you would like and it pours forth into your glass.

And about that glass — you are encouraged to bring your own. B.Y.O.G. stands for Bring Your Own Glass and, if you do so, you’ll get $1 off the first pour.

Owner Lisa Harris explained that this wrinkle grew out of the bar’s location, a small storefront in an old building that was not zoned as a "wet space," a venue that could run a dishwasher. Rather than serve wine in plastic or paper cups and throw them out, she came up with this decidedly more sustainable — if unorthodox — practice. For now, many patrons are using the bar’s modest, stemless glasses, which they have the option of taking with them when they leave. But Harris envisions future theme nights, when guests might bring "Game of Thrones" glasses, custom bachelorette glasses or other Instagrammable stemware.

Harris, her family and her general manager, Mark Giannelli, spent months putting together the wine list. Bottle prices range from $38, for a white blend from France, to $154, for Turnbull Wine Cellars’ Cabernet Sauvignon from California’s Napa Valley.

Wines are available in one-, three- and six-ounce pours (the later priced $9-$38). "What’s nice about the concept," Harris said, "is that you get to taste wines that are rarely available by the glass." Right now, the wine mix is tilted slightly toward white and rosé, but she expects to add more reds in the fall.

To go with the wine, B.Y.O.G. serves charcuterie boxes, savory dips and chips, plus fondue featuring cheese, chocolate and doughnuts. The design of the cozy, two-room space makes creative use of wine bottles, which descend from the ceiling and also form a colorful barrier between the front room and the service station.

Harris owns two other high-concept venues in the village: Prohibition Kitchen and Torte Jeff Pie Co., both of them less than two blocks away. From 2018 to 2020, the wine bar was yet another Harris production, the doughnut shop East Main & Main, but the doughnuts are now sold, along with sweet and savory pies, at Torte Jeff.

A longtime wine enthusiast, Harris had been thinking about opening a wine bar for a few years but, she said, "when C’est Cheese closed last summer, it seemed like there was a Swiss cheese-sized hole in the village for a place where you could relax and enjoy a glass of wine."

B.Y.O.G. Wine Bar is at 250 E. Main St., Port Jefferson, 631-642-7753, byogwinebar.com