I saw an article in the Cincinnati Enquirer today about a new wine restaurant opening in Cincinnati, named Lavomatic. It’s yet another establishment backed by Cincinnati restaurant mogul Jean-Robert de Cavel. The wine bar / restaurant sounds like something worth checking out. I particularly like the fact that they aren’t marking up wine prices as significantly as many restaurants do.

So, it sounds like an interesting place but the article amused me—and perhaps annoyed me. Here are some examples.

“The wine bar and bistro focuses on the future, too, said chef Joanne Drilling. The floors and tables are bamboo, and the bar is made of cork – a nod to sustainability and to vino.” I’m all for environmental conservation and sustainability, but we need to move beyond the bamboo. It’s a nice first step, but give me more. Otherwise, it sounds kind of pretentious to me.

“Ductwork and exposed brick give the narrow, bright restaurant an urban feel.” Did I just step into a time machine and land in 1991?

“We’re really committed to trying to be green as much as possible.” Really? You’re really committed to trying? As much as possible? It sounds like you’re not really committed to being green.

“It must be like the SoHo of the late ’60s early ’70s in New York City,” de Cavel said of Over-the-Rhine. Hmmm… I’ve been in Over-the-Rhine and I’ve never thought to myself that I might be in SoHo. Please don’t try to hoodwink me with that garbage.

Anyway, hooray for another wine bar & restaurant. Boo for an annoying article about it.

EDIT: Since I originally wrote this article I have gone to Lavomatic and I do have to say that it was quite good.  They have a nice wine list with plenty of good ‘wine by the glass’ options and the food I had was good.  The service was a little slow at times, but not too bad.  I didn’t really get the sense that I was in an environmentally friendly oasis, but I wasn’t too surprised by that fact.