A Jura and Savoie Wine Bar is Opening This Summer in the Lower East Side
New York is finally getting a wine bar devoted to the Alpine Arc.
A new wine and cocktail bar dedicated to the Jura, Savoie, and other Alpine regions is coming to the Lower East Side in late summer. Crybaby is the creation of sommelier Cameron Philip and his business partners, Jeff Rogers and Amber Strickland. I spoke with Cameron last week and got a sneak peek of the bar.
You might know Cameron from his time as a sommelier at Cote and Coqodaq. His career in hospitality started when he was 11 years old in his father’s kitchen, and he has worked in just about every role in the industry. (He’s also a certified Q Grader.) He landed on the idea for Crybaby after a friend of his visited New York and asked if there was a Jura wine bar in the city. Realizing the potential for the concept, he developed the idea with Rogers and Strickland for a corner location at Bowery and Broome.
The chic interior is outfitted in warm pinks and jewel-tone greens, with foxed mirrors behind a marble-topped bar. Downstairs will feature a speakeasy-style wine cellar hidden behind a secret door, available to reserve for private events. There will be a full food menu and a cheese program to complement cocktails and wines by-the-glass. So for a small upcharge, you’ll be able to add a “sidecar” of Comté with your glass of vin jaune. (Think the ubiquitous caviar bump, but dairy.)
While Cameron said that Jura and Savoie are at the heart of the bar’s wine program, it will include wines from across all Alpine regions. “Some of the most exciting and interesting wines in the world are coming from there. It has really young regions, really old regions, and every style and tradition,” he said. That includes oxidative and non-oxidative whites, light-bodied reds, sparkling wines, and even aperitifs like Macvin du Jura, a fortified wine made by blending grape must with aged local marc (grape spirit).
In a city with its fair share of niche wine programs—from Champagne, to new-wave Spain, to Eastern Europe, to Germany—a Jura and Savoie list feels long overdue, but putting together this program is no small feat given the tiny production volumes in these regions. Cameron wants to make these wines accessible to more drinkers, with by-the-glass values and smaller markups on retail pricing, while still delivering to devotees. Expect producers like Stéphane Tissot, Domaine Courbet, and François Rousset-Martin.
If you want a little preview of the wines on offer at Crybaby, Cameron is leading an “Acid and Funk” tasting for the James Beard Foundation on August 18.
And you can read more from me on Jura wines and climate change in my most recent piece for Everyday Drinking.
