For a first date, wine and dine at Tangled Vine

CORRECTION APPENDED:

Finding a first-date restaurant that satisfies a potential partner’s range of possible likes and dislikes seems like a chore, but at the recently opened Tangled Vine Wine Bar and Kitchen, students with interests as disparate as wine and football can leave satisfied.

Located on the corner of 81st and Amsterdam, Tangled Vine looks perfect for romantic outings, though it might be too expensive for a mere friendly dinner. Dimly lit, with polished wood furniture and a simple yet tasteful color scheme, the environment feels classy without being too swanky for casual dress. The restaurant also features a bar with crowded stools that give the intimate setting a sense of community and coziness. Also, there is a nice flat-screen television, so if the date gets dull, there’s something to watch.

With a wine menu that spans over seven pages, there’s a reason why Tangled Vine lists itself first and foremost as a wine bar. However, the food on its own is delicious. The menu might seem a bit over-priced, but the dishes are meant for sharing. Tangled Vine offers up delicious Mediterranean food and stays loyal to Mediterranean ingredients and flavors, but the kitchen adds a new twist to each dish.

As a starter, crostinis taste delicious and unique—the flavor combinations cover a wide range of ingredients, incorporating meats, vegetables, and fruits. Check out a pair of chickpea, morcilla, and apricot crostinis, a very nearly weird mixture that entertains the palate. Roasted eggplant, red pepper, and saba crostini also comes especially recommended. The crust is flavored with a grape must reduction that brings out the smokiness of the veggies, which are piled high.

The entrees all combine three different contrasting components, but every element comes through powerfully. The portions appear reasonable, although some of the entrees come split up into bite-sized pieces like appetizers. A traditional pick, beet salad is fresh and light, and the added goat cheese and roasted pistachios keep it satisfying. Although the greens seem a bit too tough and bitter, the saltiness of the cheese complements the sweetness of the beets perfectly. Overall, the flavors work well, even if the texture of the market greens is a bit off-putting. A more adventurous dish, scallops a la plancha, pairs seared scallops, roasted cauliflower, and blood oranges. The smokiness of the scallops and cauliflower mixes well with the sweetness of the blood oranges, offsetting the acidity of the citrus.

Tangled Vine’s service seems friendly and knowledgeable, including the manager herself.

No matter what sort of thing students’ dates might be into, Tangled Vine is a neutral setting with great food that tastes both mature and mellow.

Correction: Several mistakes appeared in the original version of the article: the manager was referred to as male, when she is a female, there was a typographical error in "morcilla," and a grape must reduction was incorrectly referred to as a mustard reduction. Spectator regrets the error.