Poppin’ bottles

The Wine Cellar by Popina (Columbia Street Waterfront)

GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Shop

One of the highlights at Popina, the excellent neighborhood restaurant on Columbia Street in Brooklyn, is owner James O’Brien’s wine list. It’s fresh and fun, with bottles for every price point. A restaurant’s wine selections, however, can only run so deep.

To solve that problem, O’Brien opened The Wine Cellar by Popina down the block. The small shop, an outgrowth of the restaurant’s pandemic-era success as a general store, offers a few hundred bottles running from a Fattoria Rodano, Poggialupi Toscana IGT NV ($15) to a Domaine Dujac Clos De La Roche Grand Cru 2023 ($850). Inside, there’s wine on vertical shelves to your left, a $30-and-under table in the middle, and two framed maps of wine regions on the right. Each bottle has its own story a staff member will be happy to tell.

While many of the selections are Italian (O’Brien’s specialty), there are plenty of additional old and new world options. I left with The Set Pinot Noir (for the very specific price of $38.63) for a friend who loves wines from the Santa Rita Hills, La Carbonera Malpastor Reserva DOCa Rioja ($28) for my wife who loves rioja, and Chiussuma Farinel Rosso ($36) for me, because I thought the squirrel on the label was cute. If you need something harder, there’s a small selection of spirits, including Popina’s proprietary Negronis ($50).

The Columbia Street Waterfront District continues to evolve, and two months after opening, The Wine Cellar fits in already. –Noah Davis

→ The Wine Cellar by Popina (Columbia Street Waterfront) • 153 Columbia St • Daily 12-8p.