RFT: Robust Offers the Best Wine Selection in St. Louis

Readers chose the area’s top five offerings in several categories for the publication’s Restaurants 2013 guide.

RFT readers say Robust Wine Bar in Webster Groves offers the St. Louis area's favorite wine selection, the publication revealed in its Restaurants 2013 guide. The restaurant expanded to a second downtown location last year. RFT calls the their wine list “uttely approachable.” “The best way to explore Robust’s excellent wine list is through one of its 9 flights, each bringing up a trio of 3-ounce pours,” according to the publication.  Read some of the latest reviews of Robust Wine Bar. Runners up included Copia Restaurant & Wine Garden, Sasha’s, Annie Gunn’s and The Wine Tap. Rankings were determined by reader votes, according to RFT.  Cyrano's also received several honors for their dessert offerings. What's your favorite wine at Robust? …

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Cheers! Try These Wines for the Holidays

When shopping for wine, visit a local wine shop where experts are on hand to help you select the perfect vintage.

Patch asked three local wine experts what they would recommend for holiday gift giving and was suprised to get the same answer. “What do they like to drink?” In the world of wine, there’s no one perfect bottle. The best gift wine is given with ample thought towards the recipient. Do they like sweet dessert wines or a bold Cabernet Sauvignon? Would they like a bottle from a far away land, or one from their favorite local Missouri winery? When pushed, wine experts will reluctantly give a few recommendations. But they’d much rather talk with you in person where they can show you around the shop and point out popular or underappreciated wines. Straub’s (Clayton, Webster Groves) “The hottest category in wines are pinot gris from Oregon,” said …

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Bar Finds

Happy Hour: Half-Price-Wine Nights

Bar Finds brings you a happy hour special for every night of the week.

Mondays: Cyrano’s in Webster Groves has half-priced wine by the glass or bottle all night. Related Content: Cyrano's Springs Forward With Updated Wine List Tuesdays: Houlihan’s in Brentwood offers half-priced wine by the bottle. Wednesdays: Smugala’s Pizza in Sunset Hills sells $6 buckets (6 bottles per bucket) of Bud, Bud Light and Bud Select all day long. Thursdays: In addition to the regular all-day-every-day happy hour at Malone’s Neighborhood Grill & Pub in Crestwood,  Thursday nights mean $3 selected bottles of beer and $4 jumbo selected drafts. Fridays: Finish off the work week at St Louis Sports Zone in Shrewsbury with $3 bombs from 10 p.m. to midnight.

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Cyrano's Springs Forward With Updated Wine List

As spring approaches, consider some new wine options at this venerable St. Louis institution.

With St. Patrick’s Day around the corner, along with its tradition of beer drinking, perhaps it’s time to get back to basics with a trip to a venerable wine-focused institution, at Cyrano’s of Webster Groves. The current incarnation of Cyrano’s is the third home of the restaurant, which started in a basement location in Clayton in the early 1960s, as a place to “take a date” and have dessert. Fire brought an end to the original Cyrano’s, and the restaurant relocated to the spot Harvest currently occupies on Big Bend Road. After a couple of decades, and following a substantial move toward a dinner menu format, the restaurant changed hands, transferring to its current owners, Carolyn and Charlie Downs. The Downs brought the restaurant to …

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Bites Nearby: Healthy Planet Natural Living Expo in Webster Groves

This healthy living expo will offer nutritious food samples, wine and beer tastings, and more.

St. Louis' own The Healthy Planet magazine will host its 21st Natural Living Expo at the Webster Groves Recreation Center Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The popular event will feature more than 70 booths and exhibits that will offer a variety of healthy and natural products for attendees to enjoy. For the health enthusiasts, numerous product samples will be available from Whole Foods Market, Sappington Farmers' Market, Schlafly Beer and more. The event also will feature live music. The first 100 paid visitors will receive free passes to the Missouri Botanical Garden. Not to be outdone, Dierbergs and Schnucks will give away reusable totes to the first 300 visitors, so be sure to arrive early! Admission to the event is $8 for adults, and free…

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Robust's Wine Guide Speaks to Newbies, Experts

Stanley Browne, owner of Robust Wine Bar, has taken his extensive experience in the wine business and cultivated not only a wonderful place to explore the world of wine, but also a unique guide for customers to use on their journey.

Wine drinkers know the moment well: The wine list, sometimes more of a pamphlet, sometimes more of a novel, arrives and is opened to reveal rows of choices, often delineated between red or white, European or American. What happens next has a lot to do with the stage of wine knowledge the reader occupies. If new to the experience, one might look for familiar names or just scout pricing, while a veteran probably enjoys the chance to search for a special vintner, region or opportunity to pair with an anticipated dish. Robust Wine Bar in Webster Groves has created a dynamic wine guide, capable of engaging the reader on any level, from newbie to expert. Okay, perhaps a wine “expert” might not be too engaged, but Robust owner Stanley Browne …

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Brian Doolittle

2:26 am on Thursday, February 10, 2011

I really enjoyed this story. Nice work!   more ›