Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/101724
Taking Inventory with. . . Liz Vilardi Co-owner and Wine Director at Belly Wine Bar + Charcuterie, Cambridge, MA by Becky Sue Epstein S ome people love the name, some hate it—but everyone wants to know why the new wine bar in Cambridge, MA is called Belly. There's an oficial explanation in the press notes, but I think the account that Wine Director Liz Vilardi gave me is the truth: after more than a decade working at the (adjacent) restaurant The Blue Room, Liz and her co-owner, husband Nick Zappia, realized they thought of the restaurant as a "she." When they recently separated off one end to create Belly, they thought of it as "the old broad's belly." The name also makes people "sit up and smile and scratch their heads," Liz adds. In addition, Belly could be an allusion to the house-made charcuterie that dominates the menu. Along with salumi and charcuterie, the offerings include hand-picked wines few people have heard of. So there's a lot of work for Liz to do here, with both staff and customers. But Liz loves being out in the restaurant. For a while, she tried a "regular profession," but being stuck in an ofice didn't work at all. She drowned her sorrows in culinary school because she remembered the excitement of working at a restaurant in college: She loved the food, the wine and making people happy. A few years ago, Liz and Nick and another couple established the nearby Central Bottle, which is Liz's concept of an ideal off-premise shop for Blue Room customers who live in the area. Having created one successful wine-related business, Liz's next step was Belly, which opened in September of 2012. The menu consists of a large, folded piece of paper with by-the-glass wines printed inside—in fun categories like "Barbera, you ignorant slut" (seven wines from Barbera-producing areas in the north of Italy) and "Wine crush: Adriano Adami" (four Proseccos). The 45-seat room has ten seats in relaxing, low, peripheral booths. The other 35 are at bar-height tables so customers and servers are always looking each other in the eye. With Liz's eclectic winelist, it's imporLiz Vilardi. tant that no one feel intimidated about asking—or answering—wine questions. She has 28 wines by the glass, and she doesn't use an Enomatic-type machine—the wines are hand-vacuumed at the end of each night. Liz and her staff taste the open wines each day to make sure the quality has endured overnight, especially if the bottle's level is low, if it has been open more than one day or if it contains a sparkling wine. Create a wine list that you get to taste each day? Nice work, Liz! 150 / the tasting panel / january 2013 THE "5" LIST Liz Vilardi's Top Five Faves 1 Wine. 2 Making people happy. 3 Teaching people something new, changing the way they look at something: a food, a wine—like that Riesling can be dry, and very good. 4 Moving boxes around and organizing—doing it myself and getting dirty. 5 Creating a family at work. People who have left us have always said they felt like they left a family. Liz Vilardi's Five Pet Peeves 1 Wine-preserving machines. 2 When people here fail to warn they're "Behind you!" 3 When people don't love wine—it makes me crazy. 4 When people come into my place and assume I'm trying to be snooty [by having a wine bar], that I don't have integrity. 5 Polishing glassware! I really don't like it, but I have to do it.