Wine Down Tastings and Tapas

Downtown Fort Wayne is hustling and bustling these days. Especially on a summer Friday night when the TinCaps are playing. It was a good thing we made reservations for Wine Down Tastings and Tapas, Fort Wayne’s newest small plates joint, located in The Harrison on Jefferson. After navigating the surrounding blocks, Beth finally secured a parking spot. As she made her way to the restaurant, Wendy was texting her. “Drama,” said Wendy. We’ll get back to that.

Beth finally arrived and joined Wendy at a table near the bar. The interior is lovely — a rich mix of wood and stone. One of the walls is completely lined with glass cases of wine bottles.

“So, what’s the drama?” Beth asked.

Wendy explained that multiple servers stopped by to introduce themselves and then proceeded to argue about who would get our table. We were seated right next to the servers station — an unfortunate spot. We were witness to several conversations that we would have preferred to miss.

Wine presentation

When the victor of Server Battles arrived she handed us our “cards” for the self-serve wine bar. They are basically used as a tab to track your purchases throughout the evening. You pour the amount of wine you desire and can choose from three sizes, from a 1-ounce tasting pour to a full glass.

So, here it is. Confession time. Neither Beth or Wendy are big wine drinkers (duh, we like FOOD – it’s in the name!). In truth, the wine tasting option was wasted on us. It would be fun for people who like wine (but a wine drinking friend said they had too many sweet wines and not enough to her liking). We were sitting in a high traffic area, and if it were hopping in there, it’s easy see how the back & forth to the wine bar area would maybe make it miserable for tables in the vicinity. Regardless, they seem to have a wide variety of options.

We did however order drinks – in addition to the wine they have a large craft cocktail menu. They were running a special on Tequila, so Beth ordered a Margarita and Wendy ordered a Hibiscus Gin Sour.

Pulled Pork Wontons

As you may remember from our Salud visit, we are fans of Tapas. We ordered three plates — Pulled Pork Wontons ($9, 4 pieces), Crabmeat Stuffed Deviled Eggs ($9, 4 pieces) and BBQ Bison Meatballs ($9, 4 pieces). The Wontons arrived first and were brought by our original server. Several minutes later, the Stuffed Deviled Eggs appeared, brought by a chef. A different server brought the BBQ Bison Meatballs soon after. There didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to what they brought when – it was fine that the food didn’t all come at the same time, but it seemed a bit haphazard and random.

Crabmeat-stuffed Deviled Egg

Beth: I feel somewhat remiss in that I cannot comment on the wine, which is of course their premiere offering. However, I have no problem chatting about the food, which I found lackluster. The wontons lacked flavor and the eggs lacked ample crabmeat. BBQ Bison Meatballs were quite tasty. The Margarita was, well, a Margarita. It was fine. Again, perhaps this is not their strong suit. It wasn’t bad, just not great.

Wendy: I would agree with everything Beth said. There was nothing wrong with the food, but there was nothing exciting about it either. The menu was far more interesting than the execution. The wontons reminded me of Chinese tacos – somewhat dry pulled pork in a wonton shell, with a lot of cilantro on top – but the assembly made it difficult to get everything in one bite, and once I got a mouthful of nothing but cilantro. Not my favorite. I had been very excited to come here ever since getting a glimpse of the menu offerings in a newspaper article months ago, but it did not live up to my expectations. I ate a light lunch that day so I would be really hungry for dinner, and what I’m about to say is about the worst thing I think I could say to a restaurant: I was still hungry when we left, but I didn’t want to eat more of their food to address that. I figured I could just go home and have a bowl of cereal instead.

BBQ Bison Meatballs

Another oddity was the check. There was none. Everything was done on a handheld tablet type of things and when all was said and done we were given a totaled receipt. It would have been nice to be able to review the itemized bill.

The consensus here was that Wine Down showed great promise, but in many areas didn’t quite deliver. And if you go on a Summer game night, be sure to allow ample time to find a parking space – we would never, never, suggest that Fort Wayne has traffic or parking problems and we are both able bodied and have no problem walking, but neither of us accounted for the congestion of a baseball game and we were both late for our reservation time.

The Verdict

Beth: “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.” I am always happy for additions to the Fort Wayne dining scene, and Wine Down will have a following among those eager for variety in wines. I hope that they pour the same attention into their food offerings.

Wendy: “Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn.” Meh. I would go back if someone else wanted to, but I’m not likely to suggest it.

Wine Down Tasting & Tapas
301 W Jefferson Blvd
Suite 100
Fort Wayne, IN 46802
260-755-1019

Salud Tapas N Tequila

There are so many restaurants opening in Fort Wayne that we’re having a hard time keeping up – what an exciting problem to have. It’s a good time to love food!

Today we’re talking about Salud Tapas N Tequila, a new spinoff from the popular local Salsa Grille chain. In fact, it shares a location with the southwest Salsa Grille, former home of Carlos O’Kelly’s at Village at Coventry. Upon entering the shared vestibule, diners either turn right to enter Salsa Grille or angle left to be seated in Salud, but after that you’d never even know there was anything on the other side – the dining experiences are completely separate.

Salud’s menu features true tapas (small plate) offerings, designed to share. They also boast a menu of 70+ tequilas, along with a full bar. We asked our server for some guidance as to how many dishes we should order, and she recommended two to four, depending on how heavy or light the food items were – makes sense.

Margarita

While contemplating the menu, we each started with the Salud! Margarita ($7.50): their private label Salud! tequila, a splash of Cointreau, organic margarita mix and organic agave nectar, served on the rocks with a large lime wedge (in case the drink is too sweet for your liking and you want to add some tartness). We both thought it was delicious: smooth and refreshing.

Guacamole

For food, we started with the “Guac and Roll” ($9), guacamole made tableside on a brightly painted cart that tools around the dining room on demand. The friendly young woman preparing the guac gave us a rundown of all the available ingredients, including some special options not typically found in your run-of-the-mill guacamole, like crab. We started with the traditional ingredients, but had her add bacon (what the what?) and pepitas (seasoned toasted pumpkin seeds) for texture and awesomeness. The guacamole was served with an ample portion of tortilla chips.

Wendy: I’m not a huge fan of guacamole in life in general – I think avocados are weird. Normally when you find something green and mushy in your fridge, you say, “Ew!” and throw it away. You know what I am a huge fan of? THIS guacamole. It was so fresh, and delicious, and I enjoyed the crunch of the bacon and the pepitas. I might’ve licked the spoon.

Beth: I LOVE guacamole, and especially like it prepared table side. Sierra was our guide through the cart of tempting additions. Bacon? Bring it! So good.

We ordered all our food at once, and our heads-up/well-trained server explained that the cart had other stops to make before our table, and that she wouldn’t put in the rest of our order until she saw that we’d been the served the guac (and then she executed upon that). Thumbs up for getting that right.

Empanadas

Albondigas

For our other dishes we selected the Carnitas Empanadas ($10, 3 pieces), with braised pork, garlic ranchero beans, queso chihuahua, salsa de chile arbol and salsa verde, and the Chorizo Albondigas ($12, 5 pieces), composed of house-made chorizo and beef meatballs, chipotle and caramelized tomato sofrito, and crumbled queso fresco. (I’m [Wendy] looking up words as I’m writing and I’m reminded to share that there’s a glossary in the back of the menu, for those of us who might not be familiar with all the ingredients.)

Wendy: I think we did some great ordering. I liked the albondigas, but I didn’t love them, which means as my least favorite dish they were still really solid. There was just something about the flavor profile that didn’t match my personal palate. The empanadas, on the other hand, were effing amazing. The pork was so tender that it just fell apart, and the beans were light and smooth, and it was all wrapped up in the perfect little crispy, not at all greasy, yummy package. The two salsas on the side were completely unnecessary for my enjoyment – I had some of the salsa de chile arbol, but mostly I forgot to use it because the empanada was so delectable all on its own.

Beth: I have to agree with Wendy on the albondigas. There was nothing wrong with them — it’s just that the other choices were so excellent. Those doggone empanadas on the other hand were crazy good.

The service was great – our server checked in regularly, but someone (the owner? manager? He didn’t identify himself.) checked in with us twice too, to make sure we were enjoying our experience. The dining room was a little loud – too many hard surfaces – and it would be difficult to hear in a party of more than two. Hopefully they can find a way to tweak that.

You can make reservations either by calling the restaurant, or for parties of fewer than six, you can make them online. They use a Yelp service for online reservations, and it was seamless and easy to use; it even sent a confirmation text the day of our reservation.

The verdict:

Wendy: “I’ll have what she’s having.” I cannot wait to go back; crab tostadas, fish tacos, and shrimp ceviche are calling my name. There’s nothing else like this in Fort Wayne*, and the food was scrumptious. (*There is another new tapas place in town, and we’ll be heading there soon.)

Beth: “I’ll have what she’s having.” Yes. I felt a little sorry for the Salsa Grille side of the building. Salud is a refreshing change of pace, and hopefully indicative of what Fort Wayne diners can expect from these new offerings. ¡Salud!

Salud Tapas N Tequila

5735 Falls Dr.
Fort Wayne, IN
260.209.5048