I don’t like fizzy drinks. Never have done, and to be honest highly doubt that I ever will. This can make drinking in a pub problematic. Don’t get me wrong, I love cozy little pubs which serve good food, but I don’t like beer. I also don’t like anything which has a fizzy mixer. This means I usually end up drinking gin and orange (one of my favourites but can be very expensive depending on where you go) or wine. And if you are the only person drinking wine when everyone else has a pint of real ale, it makes you feel a bit pretentious. Cocktail bars are also great. But can also have a menu filled with fizzy options, and can sometimes be very loud on a night out. Taking all this into account, I can’t understand why last night was my first experience of a wine bar, but it was a good one.
Take three young women, a bottle of red wine, platter of cheese and a chilled atmosphere and it will usually be a recipe for success. Last night was no different. After our initial disappointment that Pairings was closed, we decided to try Veeno – somewhere I had been meaning to go for a while but hadn’t quite made it. There were two things I discovered pretty quickly that I had had no idea about previously. 1) It is nowhere near as dark and crowded as it looks from the outside. In fact, it has quite high ceilings, which gives it a very open feel. 2) All the wines served are produced on the family vineyard. This meant I was able to try something new, and support a family business.
Lovely cork decorations
We had a lovely evening and the cheese platter was thoroughly enjoyable! Unfortunately they had ran out of the house red, but we were recommended “our classic” which was very good and went well with the food. Unfortunately, not being much of a wine taster I can’t really give a more elaborate description! However it is described in the menu as having flavours of ‘red fruit and herbs’. I would recommend Veeno, and would definitely go again. It also helped that it wasn’t overly crowded and full of drunk people, as unfortunately many bars are prone to be in York on a Saturday night.
The unexpected entertainment of the evening was when one of the candles got slightly overexcited, setting off one of the fire alarms! However, the staff dealt with it and none of the customers appeared particularly bothered. We think one of the corks must have started to burn, but not 100% sure.
