Beauty + Fashion
Ashley Joy Parker
Natural Wine Bar Neighborhood Winery Debuts In LA Arts District
- By: Ashley Joy Parker
- March 13, 2024
Vino goes au natural…….
Calling all Angeleno wine lovers! Neighborhood Winery has officially opened its doors in the heart of the Los Angeles Arts District. Led by Managing Partners and married couple, Nick and Carmen Perr, Neighborhood aims to create an unpretentious and inclusive space centered around sharing exceptional natural wines, all crafted by Neighborhood Winery.
Guests can order at the bar, stay for bites and then lounge on the welcoming dog-friendly patio with a bottle of bubbly pét nat or cozy up inside with a glass of chilled carbonic red wine.
Neighborhood Winery has taken over the space that previously housed sister brand, Pali Wine Co. Founded in 2005 by Tim and Judy Perr, Pali Wine Co. is now in a new generation of operation, reinvigorated with an affinity for natural winemaking by the Perr’s son, Nick and his wife, Carmen who are now the managing partners for the winery, alongside talented winemaker Aaron Walker. Pali has occupied the Arts District space since 2017 and is now embarking on a complete rebranding of the space as Neighborhood Winery.
“The Arts District attracts a really diverse crowd of people, from not only the Arts District itself, but other parts of LA.,” Nick told Loop Magazine at the spot’s grand opening. “People come into this space with various degrees of knowledge and interests in wine and I like being a place where all of those people can converge and enjoy wine together.”
Neighborhood Winery began as a passion project for Nick. Growing up, Nick’s childhood and young adulthood was shaped by his parent’s winery and his connection to winemaking was deepened by the legacy of his great-grandfather who, in the early to mid 1900’s, was a butcher in Brooklyn by day and a winemaker by night, growing vines in his Flatbush backyard under the moonlight. This robust history paved the way for Nick’s own journey into the world of wine, while motivated to create the sorts of natural wines that he and his friends in Los Angeles had come to love drinking.
The Neighborhood Winery brand is centered around wines that undergo native fermentations and minimal intervention— meaning no fining or filtering. Spotlighting fresh Central California-grown grapes, either estate-grown or thoughtfully sourced, the wines tend to be crisper and leaner in profile, with lower ABV, making them the perfect complement to Neighborhood’s menu of rich and varied flavors.
“Our natural wines are the wines that I’m personally most excited about,” said Nick. “I love the flavors that we’ve been able to get out of the same grapes that we had been using to make our other wines, but because we harvest them a little earlier—because we’re not manipulating anything about the fermentation or the winemaking process—those are the flavors that I prefer in wines.”
He continued, “I’m excited about Neighbourhood Winery because it gives us an opportunity to focus on those wines specifically on their own and talk more about natural wine making.”
Popular bottles include ‘Harvest Moon,’ a vinho-verde inspired blend, ‘Dawn,’ a best-selling orange wine blend, ‘Blood Moon,’ a chillable red wine blend, the naturally sparkling pét nat, ‘Pét Moon White,” and more. In addition to Neighborhood’s wine offerings, they will serve two types of vermouth, a dry and a sweet version, both of which they craft in-house and use in a Vermouth Spritz. They also offer a Yuzu Shirley Temple, using Yuzuco Super Juice, for those seeking non-alcoholic options.
Aside from the main bar, the space features communal tables and retail displays, which they’ll use to display and sell their wines, alongside a curated marketplace for boutique goods—such as the couple’s favorite pantry staples and more. Having studied painting at UCLA, the artwork adorning the walls will be paintings created specifically for the space by Nick, who also creates the artwork for the wine bottles.
Drawing inspiration from Nick’s great-grandfather, the food menu at Neighborhood Winery is a fresh Californian take on the natural wine bar, infused with classic New York, Jewish, and Eastern European flavors that his family has enjoyed together for generations.
Their offerings include their interpretations of traditional dishes such as latkes, matzo with borscht butter, a pastrami sandwich, and savory keugel, along with assorted cheese & charcuterie, chips n’ dip, an herby bitter greens salad, and more. Each dish is carefully designed to pair seamlessly with Neighborhood’s all-natural wine list.
And if you are a newbie to natural wines, don’t be intimidated to stop by and explore.
“My advice is to try as many wines as you possibly can and to understand that all that you need to know as a drinker is if you like something or if you don’t,” said Nick. “And that if you can work to kind of describe why, that’s perfect. And there’s no right or wrong answer. It’s just grape juice.”
Neighborhood Winery is open Tuesday through Thursday from 4 p.m.-10 p.m., Fridays from 4 p.m.-12 a.m., Saturdays from 2 p.m.-12 a.m. and Sundays from 12 p.m.-10 p.m..
Neighborhood Winery
811 Traction Ave, Los Angeles
neighborhoodwinery.com
@neighborhoodwinery
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