I’m gonna tell you what Eban told me: There's a secret wine bar in a chicken place called Dirty Bird. Who’s Eban? Eban's Eban Lillie from Chambers Street Wines and he does the wines at Dirty Bird which is not actually Dirty Bird but Verre de Terre which is at Dirty Bird. Eban — actually I couldn’t tell you any more about Eban. I maybe kinda definitely sorta stopped listening after the words ‘cheap wine and chicken’.
Cheap natural (organic and biodynamic) wine and chicken. Like, in New York. New York, like where every glass you take is going to set you back 16,17,18 dollars no tip. Trust me, I have a tonne of receipts I exchanged for tonnes of money. We'd spent our day balanced on barstools, our backs and bank accounts at breaking point. Cheap wine and chicken sounded like a great idea.
And I'm sure that for many, the straight up finger lickin’ mop it all up with a tonne of napkins, free range, free of antibiotics, veggie-fed, rotisserie organic chicken is what this place is all about. The neighbourhood go-to with a to-go. But with glasses starting at $8 and bottles at $20, might I also suggest a gazillion side orders of perfectly chilled strawberry juice 2015 "La Gravotte" Clos Tue du Boeuf (spring rain on soil, smashed in half pomegranate and cooling herbs) closely followed a side of Nicolas Carmarans’ 2015 "Mauvais Temps" (heavily perfumed, herbal, animal musk, spice, smoke and cherries rotting on the forest floor) not only because you can, but because they're fucking brilliant?
Oh, and ask for the spicy mayo.
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What: La Gravotte 2015
Where: Clos Tue du Boeuf, Cheverny, Loire
Grape: Pinot Noir
What: Mauvais Temps 2015
Where: Nico Carmarans, Aveyron, SW France
Grapes: Fer Servadou, Cabernet Franc, Côt
From: Verre de Terre @ Dirty Bird @ 204 W. 14 Street
