Three Valentine’s Spots to Set Your Heart On

The East Valley may not be the heart of the culinary world, just yet, but if you want to spend some special moments with your heart’s desire this Valentine’s Day, here are three local places that combine warmth, good food and an excellent selection of wines.

Cork, 4991 South Alma School Road, Suite 1, in Chandler offers an eclectic menu, explains owner/general manager and sommelier, Robert Morris. “Our menu changes frequently, and we specialize in a multi-course style of dining, with two to three courses the norm,” Morris says. Cork has a small bar/café area for intimate rendezvous. The restaurant’s wine list, with more than 400 selections, has obtained a Wine Spectator

“Award of Excellence,” Morris notes.

Another stop in Chandler is D’vine Wine Bar & Bistro, 3990 South Alma School Road. Owner Mark Nowicki also has a location, the original, in the Las Sendas community of northeast Mesa. The Chandler restaurant opened June 1, 2007.

“D’vine is a comfortable location to unwind, listen to live entertainment and indulge in a chef-driven menu,” says Nowicki, adding that live entertainment is scheduled the evening of Valentine’s Day.

You can also enjoy the D’vine experience at the bar. “Our award-winning wine list is extensive yet approachable,” he says. “Servers are well trained in selecting the optimal wine to complement the guest’s tastes

and/or food choice.” David Newton is the sommelier in charge of the D’vine wine program, assisted by Josh Ronding in Chandler.

The restaurant offers 200 different labels focusing mostly on New World wines — U.S. (in particular, Napa) South America, Australia — with a few Old World French and Italian wines as well.

In Gilbert, consider Vine Expressions Wine Bar, 1030 South Gilbert Road, Suite 103, in Gilbert Town Square. Gilbert residents Darlene and husband Davin Smolnisky opened the town’s first wine bar three years ago.

This year for Valentine’s Day, Vine Expressions is holding an afternoon wine tasting, 2–4 p.m. for couples to enjoy before dining at one of the East Valley’s fine restaurants.

The wine bar offers several hundred different wines from around the world, with more than 30 options by the glass. The glass menu changes every three months to give customers new wine options. Vine Expressions will also special order wines not in the store.

With their wine, customers enjoy appetizers, panini’s, salads and desserts. Wine tastings are every Wednesday, 6 to 8 p.m., and live music is scheduled every Saturday night, 8 to 11p.m.

For Valentine’s Day and any day, Vine Expressions offers camaraderie and good wine. “I love looking throughout the bar at night and knowing almost everyone’s name and how they found me. There is great sense of community among our customers,” she says. “You may walk in alone and not knowing anything about wine, but you walk out with a new favorite wine and having met new friends, telling them you will see them again next week. I can’t imagine it any other way.”

Written by David M. Brown

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 14th, 2010 at 11:44 am and is filed under Articles. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.