Toronto - Bicyclette Food & Wine
French ! Fun ! Flirty !
I know nothing about wine and will never pretend to. I have shown up at dinner parties with expensive bottles of wine only for them to have been put carelessly in the kitchen - probably later used for cooking or stolen by curious teens. I drank "Naked Grape” throughout university and spent much of my twenties thinking that “Cayman” communicated the perfect thank-you-for-having-me.
That is why I love bottle shops. (My ignorance clearly does not equate to a lack of enthusiasm for consumption). Bottle shops offer an intimate spot where you can learn about what you are drinking, articulate your uneducated preferences (medium! fruity!), and be able to at least say to your host, “The bottle is clay so that’s why it tastes like that.”
A girlfriend recently introduced me to Bicyclette food & wine, a perfect hole-in-the-wall spot on Harbord (one of my top three streets in Toronto). I was sold on they way in when we overheard Matt from behind the counter tell his customers that he does not “sit on day-old pastries” so they should take free baguettes with their wine. Bicyclette food & wine is half bottle shop, half in-house seats, the menu is in that tourist-accessible cursive writing, and the patrons look fresh out of Aime Leon Dore ads. Matt recommended three bottles of wine, we bought all of them, and we consumed most of them. We’re still not sure if it was his charm or the wine, but we woke up hangover-free - and naturally that has earned Bicyclette food & wine a top bottle shop spot recommendation.
What We Ordered: La Metamorphika 100% Amphorae 2021, Costador, Tarragona, Catalunya, Trepat $65.00 | Potrero Nebbiolo 2022, Haarmeyer Wine Cellars, Lodi, Nebbiol $63.00 | Lost Vineyards The Ride Skin Contact 2021, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Gewürtztraminer $25.00 (The other one is no longer on his website…!)
Address: 290 Harbord St, Toronto, ON M6G 1G6
Recommend For: A quick stop in the shop or seated for an pre-dinner snack and wine. There is another little counter bar not pictured. Great for a day date.
Reservations: No, but I am sure you could email and reserve for a tasting, they’re too nice to not be accomodating.