I walked into Terroir last night and had that moment—the one when you’re torn between wanting to spread the word about a place (to show you’re cool), but keep it all to yourself (to be even cooler).

Opened a few months ago by three guys—Luc Ertoran, 30, Guilhaume Garard, 27, and Dagan Minestero, 33 (all former servers and bartenders from the likes of Chez Spencer and Lazlo)—Terroir is both a wine merchant and  wine bar. The loft space is rustic bohemian: all smooth, cement floors and thick, exposed wooden structural beams splattered with paint. Beyond the display of some 220 wines and growing—mostly French, but from all over the world—there’s a zinc-y wine bar with a chalkboard scribbled with the evening’s daily wines-by-the-glass (1 sparkling, 4 white, 5 red; cheeses and charcuterie are also on offer). Upstairs, you’ll find couches and mismatched velvet-covered chairs.


Cozy, chic and oh-so-French.

Terroir, which is calling itself “America’s First Natural Wine Merchant,” is doing their part to dispel the myth that natural wines are inherently bad. Although most of the bottles they sell aren’t labeled “organic,” every wine here was made with dry-farmed, hand-picked, pesticide-free grapes by winemakers that use wild yeasts and avoid the other synthetic stuff commonly allowed in wine.

This is nice and all, but what makes Terroir great is that it’s just so … French (and I don’t mean vintage Orangina posters kind of French). They’ve got it down, just like someone that knows how to really work a scarf. Last night, the candles were lit, a smooth little Hot Chip tune was playing on the turntable (Guilhaume is a big collector of music) and an old slide projector from a thrift store was projecting vacation photos from the '70s on the wall. My friend and I brought our glasses of sparkling from the Loire Valley upstairs and settled in to soak it all up from our birds-eye-view. It wasn’t that busy. But it will be. Trust me.