At this restaurant in Wesley Heights, the wine list *is* the menu.
Editor’s note: This story originally published in October 2022 and has been updated to reflect that it is open.
Seven years ago, chef Sam Hart had an epiphany while cooking for some friends. “I thought it would be really fun if a restaurant paired music with food and appealed to all of the senses. No one had done that before. The next day, I quit my job and started culinary school,” Hart said.
Hart’s initial immersive dining concept, Counter-, opened in Wesley Heights in 2020 to such acclaim that it outgrew its space within a year. Now, Hart has debuted his second concept, Biblio — a restaurant where the wine list is the menu.
No food on the menu
Biblio is located next door to the new Counter- location. Upon entering the space that Hart describes as “eclectic on purpose,” guests are given a 500-bottle wine list carefully curated by Biblio’s wine director, Bill Cox.
The idea was to find the best wines with the most interesting stories. And that is exactly what Cox did.
Each of the bottles on Biblio’s list features a backstory to connect guests with the wine and its maker. One story tells of Bibiana González Rave, a Colombian-born, French- and South African-educated winemaker who married one of the biggest names in pinot noirs in Sonoma, Jeff Pisoni. Rave set out to create her own brand of French-style wine independent of her husband and ended up being named the San Francisco Chronical’s Winemaker of the Year in 2015. Hart calls Rave’s Cattleya Wines “spectacular.”
Rave’s is just one of the inspiring — and diverse — stories highlighted on the Biblio menu. Nearly 80% of the restaurant’s list consists of winemakers who are women, people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community.
Here is how this concept works
Once a guest selects a wine from Biblio’s wine menu, Puerto Rican-born chef John Cruz gets to work in the kitchen putting together flavor-forward dishes that compliment the wine. With a focus on peak season fruits, vegetables, proteins and fish, Cruz has painstakingly created a menu with Cox and Hart that ensures that each unique wine is paired with a complimentary food.
In an effort to further the idea that food and wine are one, Hart has also aggregated the pricing. Each bottle of wine — which starts at $90 and goes up to $16,000 (so choose wisely) — includes the cost of food. Additional food items can be ordered for $15 per plate, and non-alcoholic options are available, as well.
“We are very passionate about offering spirit-free options to customers both at Counter- and Biblio,” Hart said. “We’ve been working for the past six months on an in-house made non-alcoholic wine, which will be available to those wishing to enjoy a spirit-free experience at Biblio.”
Reserve your spot in advance
The Wesley Heights space can hold 50-60 people, but reservations — which are required — are available for just 34 seats per night.
“We want to leave a lot of room and make it comfortable, where people aren’t crammed in,” Hart said.
A per-person deposit is required for each reservation, and when guests book, they will have their seat for the entire evening. Biblio will open at 5 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday and will not have a set closing time. The restaurant, restricted to guests 21 and older, will also feature a private library dining room that will accommodate up to 12 people.
Hart is now open for brunch on Sundays, offering champagne, caviar and a bellini bar. He expects to have patio seating available by spring 2023.
Dedication to the greater good
Beyond his commitment to exceptional food and innovative ideas, Hart is committed to people.
He was a key driver in a push in 2021 by local chefs to help increase restaurant worker pay. Hart upholds this commitment not only by paying his own people fair wages, but also by refusing to support any business that does not pay all employees at least $15 per hour.
What does that mean at Biblio? Building a $5,000 laundry room with $3,000 of equipment and spending $4,000 on linens because he couldn’t find a local linen service company that upheld his requirements.
“We believe this restaurant is more than ourselves. It’s about building, not the present, but the future of our industry and companies that support it,” Hart said in a recent Instagram post. “Time to get really good at folding.”
Biblio
Location: 2001 W. Morehead St., Charlotte, NC 28208
Neighborhood: Wesley Heights
Instagram: @bibliocharlotte
This story was originally published October 10, 2022 at 6:00 AM.
