BED-STUY, NY — Frog Wine Bar’s owners want the new Bed-Stuy wine spot to feel more like your “living room” than a stuffy natural wine spot.
In their first week on Marcus Garvey Boulevard, co-owner Alexandra McCown said she has already seen the ranging crowd she hoped for — from big groups, to first dates, to solo drinkers reading books and even couples making out in the corner.
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“We kind of want it to be a place for everyone,” McCown said.
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It’s more like “a bar that happens to have natural wine” than your average wine bar, McCown said.
Frog Wine Bar sits on Marcus Garvey Boulevard between Putnam and Jefferson Avenues and is open from 5 p.m. to 12 a.m. on Thursday, Friday and Monday, and 3 p.m. to 12 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.
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McCown and her husband and co-owner Charles Gerbier want to make dabbling in the world of natural wine more accessible — both with menu options and the funky yet homey design of the bar.
With bottles ranging from $45-$75 and glasses under $16-$17, Frog Wine Bar isn’t really a place to have just one glass, she said.
Setting the vibe in the middle of the room is a pool table, which traveled all the from Warsaw…a venue in Greenpoint.
“There’s no wine bar that exists with pool table,” McCown said.
So far, the crowd favorite is”Früg’s” one-liter bottle of orange wine — McCown can hardly keep up with the demand. But McCown’s personal favorite is a $35 “bizarre” wine from France, co-fermented with both red and white grapes.
“[It’s] funky in the best possible way,” McCown said.
The turnout in Frog Wine Bar’s opening week has been far greater the owners ever expected — a testament to how hungry Bed-Stuy residents are for fun, homegrown bars and restaurants, she said.
McCown and Gerbier both worked at Cafe Paulette and Petit Paulette in Fort Greene, where they started to learn about the world of wine and wine curation. Eager to create a more casual vibe with their own wine list, the couple stepped out and signed the lease at 358 Marcus Garvey Blvd. in February.
Many of their customers from Paulette made investments in the new Bed-Stuy spot, a “vote of confidence” that helped propel the couple on their quick turnaround.
For now, the couple is still learning at their new spot.
“You learn something at the end of every shift,” McCown said.
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