The Bodega Wine Bar owners Gina Leone and Ben Warren sit at the bar at right. — Photos by Diego Cupolo

We are happy to report the complete gorgeousness of The Bodega Wine Bar, which opened last weekend at the corner of St. Nicholas Avenue and Troutman Street to crowds larger than the owners expected. The gracious Gina Leone and Ben Warren, both Bushwick residents, had hoped their unannounced opening would allow them to adjust before they get their credit card machine in on the 30th. But on Wednesday night The Bodega — which means “wine cellar” in Spain and much of South America — was completely full.

Leone flitted around the space attending to patrons, pouring wines and delivering small plates of spicy thin-sliced soppressata and pickled garlic shoots. They’re generous with their tastes — we had sips of several wines before making our choice. A glass of the house red, “mostly Garnacha with a bit of Tempranillo” from outside Zaragoza in northern Spain, is a mere five dollars; other selections range from seven to nine.

 
The Bodega Wine Bar
24 St. Nicholas Avenue
Hours: Tue-Sun, 5pm-1am
 
The Bodega’s exterior.

For now, The Bodega will heavily feature wines from Spain, where Warren and Leone lived for many years, and France and Italy — the respective home countries of their parents. They also have a soft spot for Argentinean, Chilean, and Portuguese wine, all of which will make appearances on the wine list. A supplier trawls the Belgian countryside to find small batches of that famous brew country’s beers. “You can’t buy these in stores,” said Leone. “We bring them down ourselves.”

Local produce is important, too: upstate and Long Island wines will rotate in, and the pair travel to the Finger Lakes in western New York to sample the region’s bounty.

Soon the bar will also serve small plates of meat and cheese.

The interiors are warm and rich; dark-stained woodwork abounds, and deep chocolate plaster walls are punctuated by a small section of light blue and a Mediterranean-reminiscent red behind the bar. Planed plank floors almost shimmer with light from within. The bathroom’s immense ceiling height, with a window you’d have to jump up to see out of, gives it an Alice-in-Wonderland feel.

It turns out this somewhat desolate intersection is actually a perfect place for a wine bar — one can sit at one of the handful of stools at the plate-glass corner window and gaze out at the white giants of long-gone industry under the yellow glow of sodium hydroxide street lamps.

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