Purple Cafe and Wine Bar

Reviews 6

JO

Joe Jespersen

In a nutshell: make sure to dress appropriately for the über pretentious environment and mentally prepare for less than attentive service. Recommended to us by the concierge at the Arctic Club just a few blocks down. He raved about it so we decided to take the stroll and give it a go. I do place some blame on the hotel concierge, who told us that t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops were "totally appropriate for the Purple Cafe". Couldnt be more wrong. My wife and I walked in (dressed as described) and immediately felt out of place. We should have been in, at the most casual, nice jeans and collared shirts. Anyways, we were seated right away, which was a nice surprise. Ambiance was nice, a little on the pretentious side, but, to be be expected at a mid-town wine bar. The menus placed in front of us looked absolutely delightful as well (I would have enjoyed trying the food). So, it took our waiter a solid 10 minutes to bring us water. Then, he disappeared. Completely. Gone. Off the radar. For about 20 minutes. Then, magically, he reappeared, but this time, he was tied up working on the point of sale machine right next to our table. And he stood there, in front of the machine, completely ignoring us, enthralled at this tasks on the point of sale machine. I quickly guzzle my water, and mutually decide with my wife to bail. I travel for work; it keeps my candles lit, the fire stoked and bread on my table at home. Three nights per week I eat at sit-down establishments. Across the country. And have been doing so for the better half of 15 years. I will absolutely not tolerate being ignored when I come to patronize an eatery. We went back to the hotel, grabbed my car keys, and booked it down to the "less pretentious" end of town, to one of my favorite eateries of all time; "Slims Last Chance". Maybe next time, Purple. But, probably not.

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ME

Meagan Davenport

I’m still a little mind-boggled that I didn’t take any pictures of this meal, but my party was seated upstairs and the lighting was really low – which is great, just not for picture-taking. Between the four of us, we managed to stuff ourselves with beef tartare, bacon-wrapped (and gorgonzola-stuffed) dates, and gorgonzola-pear pizza before we even ordered our entrees. The two gentlemen in the party ordered duck; I ordered the fresh-sheet pumpkin risotto; and the lady ordered filet mignon. Then we got salted caramels and chocolate-espresso tarts for dessert. It was all spectacular! I felt like I’d died and gone to heaven with that risotto; it actually tasted slightly curried, which surprisingly worked well with the pumpkin. Service was excellent and the wine flights were stellar (and the waiter was very knowledgeable about each of the wines served, which was impressive since we all ordered different flight pairings). I’ve been on a bit of a Bordeaux kick after IFBC, so was thrilled to see they had a Bordeaux and Bordeaux-like flight. A+! Wines included: CHÂTEAU GRAND FRANÇAIS: Bordeaux Supérieur ’09 DOMAINE LA ROCALIÈRE: Lirac ’10 CHÂTEAU LA ROQUE MOURVÈDRE: Coteaux du Languedoc ’06 The Chateau Grand Francais was hands-down my favorite. The Domaine La Rocaliere was fine, but, next to the two Chateaux, really paled by comparison.

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A

A Private User

Im never one to complain, but I feel this was just one of the worst dining experiences I have ever had. I was there with my fiance on our last night of vacation and went to this place. It was packed inside, and looked like a good time, everything looked great and expected the same. Went up to the lounge because there was a wait for a table. Server was quick at taking our orders at first, then we got the wine and waited...and waited. Finally 2 appetizers show up about 30 minutes later, and the entire time the server never returned during that time. We only ordered one entree the same time we ordered the appetizers. Over an hour later, we got them. The server during that time never came to our table. I had to ask another server to help us and check on it. He never returned either for an update. I finally asked a chef in front of us if he could help us out, and he did (and we tipped him personally even). Our original server came by and said hed check on it. Over an hour later we got our entree, they took it off the bill, and again fell into an abyss somewhere. We again asked the chef for help getting the check after 30 more minutes, and I personally walked it down to the server. Food was great, service was abysmal.

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SO

Sophia Yuen

DESSERT! We already had dinner, but still wanted to try this place and thought what better to go with wine than dessert? Well, not really, but that was the thought at the time, haha. We got 3 desserts with wine pairings to share between the three of us and we were stuffed! We got the chocolate cake with hazelnut, banana cake, and lemon ricotta and they were all delicious! I would recommend any or all of them! The lemon ricotta was the crowd favorite as it was perfectly sweetened yet a little bit tart and light and fluffy. I only like one of the wines, but Im not a wine person so that doesnt really say much about how good the wines are. Be warned, the prices are a little steep as one dessert and wine pairing pretty much costs as much as a meal there. Overall, it a cool and classy place to grab some wine, dessert, meal, catch up with friends, have a date night, etc. They also have a cool spiral staircase showcasing all their wines.

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CL

Claire R

I came here from out of town and wanted something fancy for my first night in town. I sat at the bar and the bartender asked me what type of wine I liked. I said White Zin and he gave me 3 choices that were similar. After picking, I wanted another wine that was a step up from that one. He gave me a few more choices. He knew more about wine than I have seen any bartender at a wine bar before. He told me spot on about the dish I was picking. It was perfect. Even the bread and butter was great. I love the atmosphere and the feel of the restaurant. The only suggestion I have is the lighting in the bathroom was rather dark. I do like the lay out of the restaurant and the sliding doors, I just think in the actual stalls it was too dark. I like to see that there isnt pee on the toilet seat :) I recommend this to anyone! Great for a night on the town. and It wasnt that pricey either :)

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AN

Andrew Jackson

I would give zero but I cannot. I was there for over 3 hours. They asked for our order in a fair amount of time. We had ordered the lamb pizza. It took them over an hour to bring it to us. The lamb pizza tasted like one those microwaveable pizzzas that were in the microwave too long. It was burnt and thats all I could really taste, other than the "lamb" which actually tasted like ground beef. It was a small portion for the price we paid which I understand its that way because its a higher end restaurant. I was still hungry afterwards so I went elsewhere to eat to fill my stomach. Eating only took about 10 minutes. We were ready to receive our bill once the pizza was gone, but we waited, and waited for almost 2 hours for our check, so long that one of my friends missed his bus back home. Would never recommend this place. One of the worst placea to ever serve food to me.

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