The Wine Loft Groupon

Friday night, Cate and myself ventured out to the Gulch to use my January $15 for $30 Groupon for The Wine Loft Wine Bar in The Gulch (503 12th S). For those of new to town, the Gulch is towards downtown Nashville on 12th S. Basically, where the two giant surprisingly modern looking LEED certified condos are located is the Gulch (you can see from West End and Broadway).

Of course, in typical Morgan fashion, I did not notice the Groupon said reservations were required until I was leaving to go to the bank and swing by Cate's. Of course, this also means I call Cate with a bunch of OMGZ and WTFzz, and she calmly tells me to STFU, calls over to the Wine Loft, and gets us a reservation. Ding, mission accomplished! Parking in the Gulch is disasterous, but conveniently there is Valet parking right outside. Of course, the valet parking is also at a red light and holds up traffic, resulting in lots of honking and irate cab passengers, but hey - not my problem!

So the Wine Loft has a pretty cool look. Basically, the outside looks sort of like you are going in to an illicit establishment in an abondoned warehouse to do all sorts of sneaky things. The inside is interesting to look at as well. The Wine Loft has very low lighting, lots of velvety couches for your clothing to cling to, little cut fluffy stools to sit on, and black lizard texture tables which are pretty awesome. Refreshingly for me, the music was not country which I'm not a huge fan of. Unfortunately for Cate, it was dance music of the, you know, redundant techno variety which would not have been her first choice. Well, too bad Cate!

So on to the important reviewy stuff: the service was good although a little slow. However, slow worked for us as we were looking to chill and hang out and not in a mad rush to get on to the next location. The food menu looked really good, but a lot of really amazing looking dishes had shrimp in them so heads up if you have seafood allergies.

We went with the Lunetta Prosecco which was $45 for the bottle ($9 for the glass) and the trio of dips with pita bread. Of course, the food is the one thing not listed on their online menu, so I am going to have to try to remember exactly what it was which means I will probably be off base. There was definitely hummus, an olive and fig tapenade, and something I can't remember (Cate help me) but it was spicy and awesome. EDIT: See Cate's post on the baba ganoush, definitely the best part.

The place was a little pricey but the prosecco was good, and there were quite a few options. The clientele seemed a little too serious for me, but if you are the type that enjoys having a glass of wine and expressing deep thoughts with Jack Handy, you'll probably fit in well. There was a cool group of people that went upstairs for a party but since neither of us were invited we were forced to stay downstairs with the serious folks. The couple near us that kept making out would probably like me to add that the Wine Loft has a very romantic ambience and would be a good place to impress a chick or dude on a first date.

Overall it was not bad. I don't know if I would go back for every day type of gatherings, but it would probably be a good place to go if you have a hip business client from out of town and your corporate card. I would also probably go back if I had to stage a relationship intervention and needed a place were I could confront someone about how horrible their relationship is, because it is a public place so no one can kill you but it does sort of feel secluded at the same time. However, they do have deals including a Tuesday night half off for all bottles of wine, which I think may also draw in more of my kind of people.

Ratings on the MorgyMeter:
Environment: 4
Potent Potables: 4
Cheap Factor: 2 - EXCEPT TUESDAY! Half off bottles = way more affordable!
Clientele: 2

So overall, I guess it's a 3 unless its Tuesday. If someone wanted to meet there I'd oblige, but it's just not my scene. I had a good time, but I'm not necessarily going to seek it out if it's not a Tuesday because as Cate mentions above me, there are more affordable options if you are willing to leave the Gulch.