1 of 5
Photo by Adam Ewing
Seared polenta with caramelized onions and kashkaval cheese, topped with cured tomatoes
2 of 5
Photo by Adam Ewing
Cornmeal-crusted catfish with candied orange and baby kale
3 of 5
Photo by Adam Ewing
Herb-roasted vegetable salad with fresh thyme
4 of 5
Photo by Adam Ewing
Spanish wine selections
5 of 5
Photo by Adam Ewing
The artful Shockoe Bottom storefront
C’est le Vin is an enigma. It has elements of Spanish tapas, the Deep South and mid-century throwback finger food. And vast quantities of “le vin,” obviously. Only a handful of spots in Richmond have tackled a lengthy tapas menu, and even fewer offer the dual tapa/ración portions for each plate, but C’est le Vin does both. I love that — sometimes I want to order five snacks alongside, say, a massive pile of chive-adorned garlic shrimp (which are quite good there).
Tapas, which translates to “cover,” originated in Spain as a drink protector — a functional cocktail umbrella, if you will. A slice of salty ham or spiced bread would be placed atop glasses to keep away fruit flies; eventually, bartenders got competitive about how
delicious and drink-appropriate their covers could get. I mention this because if you walk into a tapas spot in Barcelona today, you’re still going to find simple dishes in the salty, spicy and fried categories. And the quality of the components, the cheeses, meats, olives and the like, allows them to stand alone.
This is where C’est le Vin veers a bit leftward. For better or worse, that simplicity is often lost in the preparation: The “potatoes bravas,” typically deep-fried and topped with a bit of aïoli or tomato sauce, come out pan-fried and coated to flaccidity in aïoli and garlic sauce. Another staple, the Spanish tortilla, swerves away from tradition as a fluffy, pancetta-studded omelet rather than a slice of densely layered potato-egg satisfaction. Tasty? Totally. Spanish? Not really. The other requisite tapas bits — olives, spiced nuts, roasted peppers — felt like just that: requisite. When something as simple as a dish of olives is served in a restaurant, you want it to be a high-quality ingredient chosen for its distinctive taste, maybe even an interesting varietal you haven’t come across before.
The atypical (i.e. non-Spanish) side of things dips into Southern cooking. There’s a potato salad that recurs in several places on the menu, a braised kale dish, deviled eggs and pickled eggs. While red peppers in the oil-based potato salad might qualify it as a play on Spanish potato salad, you need to be a pretty serious lover of capers in order to enjoy it. In fact, capers show up a lot and in mass quantities, and tend to overpower delicate offerings like the small, tender calamari rings. The braised kale is a winner, though. Peppery, spicy and pork-fat seasoned, it makes me think someone in the kitchen had a culinarily inclined Southern grandma. Other yummy snacks include the flaming, golden-crusted ouzo saganaki, the spinach-and-feta-stuffed mushrooms, and the seared polenta with kashkaval and oil-cured grape tomatoes. That one’s a house favorite, boasting a corn pudding texture beneath the salty-sweet trimmings.
Many tapas joints in America add their own elements to a springboard of Spanish snacks, and that’s understandable. (I will admit to my own leanings toward purism here; I like to see restaurants shine at specificity, authenticity, quality and tradition in at least some of the cuisine that they serve so that I can better appreciate the riffs and experiments that they’re trying out.) In pretty much any iteration, though, tapas is fun. C’est le Vin ups the ante by hosting tango nights twice a month — on the second and fourth Wednesdays — plus monthly live music, poetry and a DJ’ed wine event called Wine Down.
If what you’re after is a night of wine tasting with a snack here and there, C’est le Vin is really going to come through for you. There were 31 wines available by the glass on my last visit, and quite a few more by the bottle. They take a one-of-everything approach to their by-the-glass menu and feature largely the most well-known grapes, making it an ideal location for beginner wine enthusiasts who want to familiarize themselves with the process of distinguishing aromas and flavors.
All in all, it’s a warm, friendly, nicely lit space that encourages sharing and sampling, and that alone gives it good marks. It’s more about the experience as a whole. And you’re not packed in like sardines; caramel-color wine racks and a pressed-tin ceiling tuck you neatly but spaciously into the dining area for whatever type of experience you’re after: a quiet, romantic dinner; an animated ladies’ night; a wine adventure. And that’s the kind of variety I can get behind.
C’est le Vin
15 N. 17th St., 649-9463 or
Hours: Tuesday to Thursday 2 p.m. to 11 p.m.; Friday to Saturday 2 p.m. to midnight.
Prices: small plates $4 to $10, large plates $8 to $20
