"Great atmosphere and decor, very good northern Italian food and other diverse selections, excellent appetizers and charcuterie, surprisingly large well prepared portions, amazing bread, responsive service, but, sadly a self inflicted wound on the wine by a restaurant that calls itself a wine bar. Wine should be stored and served at 55 to 65 degrees. This is challenging for many restaurants who will hover around room temperature. Unfortunately, the bottle we ordered, a well selected unusual norther Italian gem, was nowhere near even that. It was every bit of 80 degrees. Literally warm to the touch as if it were close to bright lights or the kitchen. We had to put it in the water bottle chiller. At this temperature, for any length of time, wine “cooks”, a trade term indicating spoilage. Unfortunately, ours was close to “cooked” indicating long term poor hot storage. This is sad because Esca has a smartly selected list with some delightful options. It makes no sense why they would invest in very nice wines and then undermine them. We thought maybe it was our bottle alone but we saw other reviews complaining about the warm wine. The average customer might not notice but anyone with any wine expertise will. Please Esca, fix this.We would like to come back for your delightful food but frankly, we would be hesitant to order another bottle.What an unnecessary loss…"
