Black Mountain Wine House
Union St & Hoyt St
Brooklyn, NY 11231 (718) 522-4340
- Nearest Transit:
Carroll St (F, G)
- Price Range: $$$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Good for Groups: No
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Best Nights: Mon, Wed, Fri
- Alcohol: Beer & Wine Only
- Smoking: No
- Coat Check: No
12 Reviews for Black Mountain Wine House
This is a great place to hang out during colder days because of the fireplace. Cozy enough for a rendevous with a girlfriend/significant other, but also a good place to try to establish a girlfriend/signficant other. Wine's good, but you do yearn for a nice 'spirit' or two. Also the wines are random for lack of a better term.
I also find it interesting that they try to differentiate by calling it a "Wine House" (not Wine Bar as listed here, which is wrong). It does have a woodsy home feel that you don't find often. They do a good job of conveying it.
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The other night a very dainty friend and I consumed three bottles of wine here over the course of four hours. (It was the one with "barnyard notes.") I say this not merely to illustrate our capabilities as lushes but to express how incredibly comfortable and relaxing the space was. We scored a small table near the fire and the staff was very kind about our lingering and the ebb and flow of friends who joined us throughout the evening.
Food was good, too. She had the Winter Salad, I had the Tuna Nicoise, and both were more unusually tasty. Other friends got the fondue (Tuesday is fondue night), a cheese plate and a piece of apple strudel. We'd thought the food would be an afterthought, but I'd actually go back for dinner.
Highly recommended, either for a group or a good chat.
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This little place draws quite the crowd. Ten stars for service! Obviously good wine selection, but I wouldn't mind seeing a few lower-cost bottles on the menu, too. The food we ordered was delicious, but know that the menu is relatively limited. The ambiance was delightful! (Note, however, that the table near the fireplace may cause you to melt.)
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You really can't be the cozy atmosphere and the smell of wood burning on a chilly day. Unfortunately for me the day I visited Black Mountain it was pretty nice outside but the outside was not yet open for the warm weather and it was way too hot to sit by the fire. When they stoked the fire with a few more logs that was our cue to move to the window seats. I just hit that weird spring in-between season and won't hold it against them.
The wine selection was varied but pricey. Shane's pick (always $6.50 and both red and white selections) was a grenache which is one of my fave grapes and it was exceptional, both my friend and I were happy with the affordable option. The food was tempting (esp the mac and cheese) but we just weren't hungry enough to venture there. Not all of the cheese on the menu was available but we had a pretty good raw sheep's cheese from Spain that was served with a compote and pears.
On thing that left a bad taste in my mouth was the service. To me, when there are as many staff as there are patrons in the restaurant it should not take 10 minutes for someone to acknowledge you. Hard to imagine what it would be like when crowded. They still get 4 stars because of the interesting wine selection, all food choices are $10, specials looked delicious, and the vibe was great. I look forward to visiting again and hopefully having a 5-star experience.
Nice place, but too expensive. I thought Brooklyn was supposed to be cheaper than the city? The place is small and cute and stuff, great for a nice relaxing time with a friend or two. Good wine and cheese selections, but I found the prices to be higher than I thought they should be. The bottles on the other hand were a more reasonable price, but by the glass too expensive.
If the glasses were a couple of bucks less per glass this place would be solid.
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Not a wino by any stretch of the imagination, I was summoned to meet friends at Black Mountain just last night. Tucked away in a quiet residential area, it is a log cabin trapped in brownstone-ville. That is half of its charm. Farmhouse cozy with a fireplace consistently stoked by one of the guys, the place is seriously charming. Even though it is a small space, the tables are not stacked on top of each other, so you can focus on your tables' conversation instead of some other dudes. If the conversation at your table is a bore, you can always pick up one of the ancient issues of Popular Mechanics they have stacked on the shelf....interesting.
Walked in and sat at the bar where Shane, the dude that picks the wines, was hovering. He was friendly and accommodating as were the other staffers. I will not pretend to have any sort of knowledge of wine and all that goes into selecting one off of a list. This is where the staff was super helpful again.
The food is something I know about. Like Lisa J. said, the cheese plate with pear and chutney is a good enough reason to check this place out. The White Bean Crostini with Almond Ricotta was delicious and we ended up using the remaining bread from our cheese plate to get all that ricotta out of that ramekin. Then I resorted to using my finger. Also try the Tuna Nicoise Salad and probably anything else on the menu.
The only downside: no coffee beverages so I had no coffee with my pumpkin pie (which was pretty damn good even without the coffee).
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Great atmosphere! If you're looking for a place that serves delicious food and has a nice selection of wine and beer in a cozy yet vibrant setting, this is a place to try. I ordered the Tuna Nicoise and Crostini and took advice from our rather kindly and informative waiter on what wine to get. All was delicious and I had a great time.
I enjoyed the fact that the music was varied and not loungy. Also nice to get off of Smith Street. I loved the unpretentious service mixed with the delicately, eclectic decor and tastiness of the food/drink.
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Quickly becoming my favorite place in CG. I first stopped in a week or two after they opened to admittedly mixed results-- a great wine list, but the wait staff clearly wasn't prepared for the crowds and I had to wait nearly an hour for a refill on my glass of wine. But the cheese plate made up for it (such a perfect cheese plate-- not just the selection, but the bread, fruit, and jam accompanying it-- still can't figure out what's in that jam). And on subsequent visits, things were running more smoothly. In my mind, this place has everything Sample is lacking--a good wine list, plus better value snacks and excellent desserts (the warm chocolate cake is not to be missed). Some may scoff at the Adirondack chairs on out on the porch, but I love the homey feel. Kind of like being in a friend's backyard, when none of your friends have backyards.
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My friend and I decided to try this after a girls' night out at the Cobble Hill movie theater. What a great decision. The ambiance was great, and if the seats hadn't already been taken, we would've loved to sit outside. The small plates were delicious - just simple ingredients well executed. And the wine? Here's a little story for you..... It's summer, so I wanted something cool, but I was in the mood for red. I mentioned this to the waiter, and what do you know....they had a delicious chilled red. Do you know how often that happens? Not often enough!
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Catherine H. is just a hater 'cause I walk past this place for work every day.
Early bird gets the worm, baby!
Looking forward to checking out this new wine bar. The patio is full of wood furniture reminiscent of the Adirondacks or maybe it's a North Carolina thing. Otherwise I can't say until I give it a try. Look for my update for this interesting location on the corner of Hoyt and Union.
UPDATE: So after many months of seeing this place get ready for business and at one point thinking it wasn't even going to happen the Black Mountain (Wine House, technically) has opened. It took us about a week to get in here but I was feeling sold the minute I saw people relaxing in the over sized rustic mountain chairs on the front porch.
That's clearly the spot to be on a nice summer evening but I settled into a table inside and ordered a Gaffel Kolsch ($5) and a Mahon (spanish) cheese plate ($4). The cheese plate arrived with pears and a tasty raisin compote in addition to the cheese. Sweet! A little more food than I expected. My GF finally arrived and ordered the bartender special which was a crisp but not overly fruity Greek wine and I decided to get into the spirit and ordered a tasty Loire valley red ($10) and the pork and duck terrine on a bed of fennel salad with pickled vegetables on the side. All food items are $10. Quite tasty. We decided we had to start saving some money and got a bottle of white burgundy ($32) since we were still "waiting" for our other friend to arrive. And just in time she helped us finish the bottle and we moved into another Languedoc ($32) to keep with our French leanings.
Overall they did a great job making this place a comfortable and unpretentious wine bar that will bring me back for more. Also they had a decent selection of bottled beers that seemed to be of the large type for 13-17 dollars. Don't expect more than cold plates or a toasted sandwich though because they don't have any gas for the kitchen.
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Carl G. needs to be flagged. "Look for my review," indeed. First-hoarder!
Anyway. This is a pretty awesome new wine bar slightly off the beaten path that I hope doesn't get discovered on a massive scale. Decorated unassumingly with wooden tables, white clapboard accents, and of course strategically placed wine bottles, this place is a nice homey spot I'm happy to make a regular hang. Our server was friendly and helpful, but not in-your-face; we liked him a lot. Thankfully for the just-off-work set, they have food here: generous cheese plates, a couple of sandwiches, a few salads, but nothing to get too excited about. Instead we focused on the drinking, opting for a variety of wines, including "Shane's pick" (the owner, perhaps?), for $6.5 dollars a glass, which was quite nice indeed, and two bottles of reasonably priced white. Good stuff. The desserts sounded pretty good, too (nutella raisin bread with berry and fig compote? eff yeah! take my eight dollars now, please!). In any case this is a great addition to the neighborhood, with great music, and I can definitely see myself returning time and again. A word to the wise: It's a little over-air-conditioned in there, so bring a sweater and settle in. A second word to the wise: cash only, for now. Be a high roller.
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love this place. comfy, great wine list. i do agree that service was a bit slow but its a small place, and was filled up to capacity.
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