3 new Long Island wine bars for date night

It's almost Valentine's Day. Yay! Or nay. ... Either way, cozy wine bars are having a moment, with three new spots that embody the warm, winter goodness of winding down with a glass of wine. For all three owners of the establishments below, owning a wine bar has been a long-held dream that they've succeeded in launching — and they're making it look easy. 

With an emphasis on the beverage aspect of their menus, these spots — in Roslyn, St. James and Northport — are all different in scope and feel, but equally focused on quality, featuring small producers and family-owned wineries and sustainable farming methods, wherever possible. If you like wine (and food!), take time to visit these gems. And if you care, they're Cupid-approved.

Alto Enoteca, Roslyn

1424 Old Northern Blvd.

Vaulted ceilings and a marble back bar, brown leather place mats and dark, perimeter banquettes, communal center table and swank, moody lighting — the bar at Alto Enoteca feels tucked somewhere deep in the West Village, far, far away from Northern Boulevard. With seating for a mere 30, if you can snag a seat, Alto is a cozy, wonderful escape from the outside world.

The soundtrack is low enough to remain inoffensive yet upbeat enough to give the room a vibe. The staff is easy going and knowledgeable. Owner Nico Di Lullo moves around the floor like a seasoned host; it was his parents, Franco and Gemma Di Lullo, who settled in Bayville after emigrating from Italy and bought the Roslyn Village building in which Alto now lives. In the early 1980s, they opened Piccolo Gourmet, an Italian-accented specialty market that morphed into Il Salumaio and Marketplace before they leased the space to La Bottega around 2010.

When La Bottega closed last year, Di Lullo "saw an opportunity. The building was very tired, I needed to put a lot of money into it and I thought, now is the time for that enoteca I’ve been thinking about since the early 2000s," he told Newsday on opening in November.

BY THE GLASS "Enoteca" is Italian for "wine library" and Alto stocks about 50 wines, near half available by the glass. The emphasis is on small producers whose vintages "are the best expressions of the grapes out there," he said. The list is divided into three price categories: "At the Door" comprises $15 glasses and bottles under $60 (among them, Pieropan Soave and Mercante Primitivo); "The Adults are Talking," bottles under $85, is where you’ll find Michele Chiarlo Le Madri Roero Arneis, Le Saline Vermentino di Gallura, Tarara Cannonau di Sardegna and Sandrone la Morra Barolo. And you can throw caution to the wind with "Bad Decisions" (up to $150) such as Colterenzio Lafóa sauvignon blanc or Masi Costasera amarone.

ON THE MENU The dishes from the open kitchen take customers from wine-adjacent snacks ($10) — marinated stem-on artichokes and wild mushrooms sott’olio; bruschetta ($16) topped with sweet-sour eggplant — to full-blown meals like a skirt steak with white miso and cherry tomatoes ($28) and oversized head-on shrimp. Cheeses and salumi featured in boards are imported from Italy and bread is made on the premises.

Warm and hearty mid-sized dishes like roasted cauliflower and creamy cannellini beans with lemon-caper tahini ($16) and a featured pasta — on the day we visited, paccheri ragú ($30) — complement meaty short ribs a la Genovese, chicken breast with fingerlings.

More info: 516-723-9042, altoenoteca.com

Enology Wine Bar, St. James

412 N. Country Rd.

Jimmy Kilimitzoglou has opened his dream wine bar In the former Ibérico in St. James. The dentist-by-day comes from a food family — his dad had a restaurant, his mom was "really into wine" — and it's that inspiration that fuels his Enology Wine Bar and Bistro, which opened just before Thanksgiving.

There is no semblance of the former Iberico space at Enology, it’s been gut renovated, with highball tables dotting the main room, anchored by a buzzy, square bar, and a more formal nook of a dining room, off to the right. The soft-focused, twinkle-lit space is perfect for leisurely sipping a new bottle, snacking on a flatbread, or settling in for a more hearty meal.

BY THE GLASS The wine comes from around the world, as far as Tasmania in Australia, as close as Cutchogue, and everywhere in between. Bottles are broken out in categories like aromatic whites, light to medium reds, bold and big, and fortified, to name a few. The menu is filled with meticulous tasting notes so drinkers can get a sense of what they’re ordering, and if you want to try more than one of the wines on Enology’s list, there are small serving half glasses starting at $6.

Whites from the current list include Weingut Stadt Krems, Riesling Grillenparz ($16) made from ancient terraces overlooking the Danube River, and Marchesi di Gresy, Langhe sauvignon blanc, an Italian take on a classic French grape ($14), and a $400 bottle of Jean Chartron, Puligny Montrachet Folatieres, from Burgundy. Reds like the North Fork’s own McCall Estate pinot noir ($16), Bodega Garzon, Tannat Reserva Uruguay ($12 glass, $42 bottle) and the Australian Henschke, cabernet sauvignon Barossa ($40). There are also crafted cocktails, beers and ciders.

ON THE MENU The food runs seasonal, from light snacks like stuffed olives ($11) and whipped ricotta ($15) to local oysters. Medium-sized plates include a roasted cauliflower head with dukkah and turmeric crème fraîche ($17), avgolemono wings with lemon and dill salt ($18), and a perfectly cooked octopus ($24). Large plates range from salmon ($29) to a New York strip ($42).

Focused on wineries that are biodynamic, sustainable or organic, and family owned for generations, and with a deep respect for terroir, Kilimitzoglou wants guests to "see the wine express itself in the glass when all those prerequisites, if you will, are satisfied. Every wine has a story, every grape has a little poem, so we want to kind of educate people and showcase the wine." 

More info: 631-517-0277, enologywinebar.com

Moksha Café, Northport

249 Main St.

Less glam, but equally cozy, Moksha Café has gone through multiple owners in the post-pandemic years, and most recently housed Caffe Portofino. Moksha, which nods to the Sanskrit word for liberation, has been lovingly refurbished and now serves coffee by day and wine by night.

Although the space has been a coffee shop for the last two decades, owner Joe VanRoten is a dual accredited sommelier who's worked at restaurants including Rare 650 in Syosset and Bedell Cellars/Corey Creek wineries in Cutchogue. Moksha's ambience feels earthy and organic with tones of subdued pops of green and pink — the VanRotens’ wedding colors — running through the rectangular space.

BY THE GLASS "Drinking habits are changing," said VanRoten, so at night he's serving no- and low-alcohol drinks. Cocktails use kava, vermouth, sherry and sake. There are craft beers and funkier products like hard kombucha. Wines by the glass (or bottle) include a Sonoma chardonnay ($15), an Italian Verdicchio ($13), and a French red blend ($15). Hardly a restaurant, not a full-on coffee shop VanRoten said he is "trying to encapsulate what a modern cafe can be and should be."

VanRoten hopes to give guests "enough that is familiar to them as to not feel intimidated but also enough differentiation that it still reads like a sommelier is behind this." For example, he's pouring an Australian Cabernet from the Margaret River region by the glass because "it has enough fruit to it that people who enjoy California Cab will appreciate." He's also pouring a "little known grape from Portugal Touriga Nacional, great for cab drinkers as it is big, bold and fruit forward but at an easier price point." The Cab is $17, the Touriga is $14.

ON THE MENU The all-day menu (save for a last call on eggs at 3 p.m.) is full of obvious cafe goodies like avocado toast ($14) and fresh pastries. There are simple sandwiches — turkey, pesto, arugula, tomato, mozzarella, balsamic ($16), for example — charcuterie boards (from $35), and flatbreads (from $16). 

More info: 631-993-5157