Vintage Enoteca in Hollywood

A couple weeks back, I was invited to check out the new Vintage Enoteca in Hollywood. Although it was evening, their menu is available from 8 a.m. to 12 Midnight. You could get creative as we did and have a “brunch” at night. They describe themselves as a casual wine bar.

I adored the photography on the walls and the rustic old-fashioned light bulbs gathered to provide light seemed to whisper of bygone eras.

We started with a lovely prosecco and sampled the speck-wrapped Medjool dates. The chef came out to say wrapping a date in bacon was too easy when I mentioned how much I loved the bacon-wrapped stuffed fig I once had at Father’s Office. The speck imparted a nice salty flavor and was very crispy. I didn’t miss the bacon. Or rather, I didn’t miss some of the messy oily bacon-wrapped dates I’ve had in the past.

We also had a couple of different bruschettas; white bean hummus with saba and goat cheese. I learned saba was a type of balsamic vinegar. It worked very well with the hummus though I loved the goat cheese one more because of the caramelized onions.

For the longest time, I avoided tuna outside of sushi. I just didn’t like canned tuna. It wasn’t until about 10 years ago that I discovered people ate fresh, cooked tuna! None of this canned stuff. I enjoyed this tuna salad because it was fresh. And it combined some of my favorite things- fusilli pasta, pecorino, artichoke and cherry tomatoes all in a light lemon mustard vinaigrette.

I will have to take the gay boyfriend to Vintage. He loves paninis. He got a panini maker once for Christmas and for about a week we had paninis every day. I thought the Italian panini was so good with the roasted oyster mushrooms. We also tried the Spanish grilled cheese which features chorizo. But knowing the gay boyfriend, he’ll either get the spicy tuna or the basil chicken.

I hold cauliflower in high regard. It’s a vegetable I can eat raw or cooked. I love it just slightly more cooked. It’s a genius idea to have it on flabread. The nicely chewy mushroom flatbread was also very good. Winners!

We had a taste of many great wines by the glass. Faves included the 2009 Sauvignon Blanc from Walter Hansel (Russian River Valley) and2008 Pinot Noir from Sean Minor (Napa Valley).

I look forward to exploring more of their wine list and food.

Vintage Enoteca

7554 West Sunset Boulevard

Los Angeles, CA 90046-3413

(323) 512-5278