Bar à Vin

The wine bar at 1035 31st Street NW is the walk-in companion to Chez Billy Sud, the Southern French restaurant in the adjacent building. Bar a Vin shares the kitchen and the French culinary orientation of the restaurant next door while operating as a different kind of space: no reservations required, a front room that was once a domestic living room and still has a working fireplace, and a wine program organized primarily around France with the depth that a serious wine bar’s cellar provides.

The no-reservation format is what makes Bar a Vin the Georgetown wine bar for unplanned evenings. The adjacent Chez Billy Sud requires advance booking, particularly on weekends; Bar a Vin takes whoever walks in and seats them when space opens. For the Georgetown couple who wants wine and something to eat without the planning that restaurant dining often requires, the 31st Street wine bar provides the spontaneous option.

The fireplace in the front room, which burns through the fall and winter months and turns the converted residential space into a room with the warmth and atmosphere that Georgetown’s Federal-period townhouse architecture produces, is the physical feature that most distinguishes Bar a Vin from the standard bar. Sitting by the fire in a room that was once a living room, drinking a glass of Burgundy with a plate of charcuterie, is the specific Georgetown evening that the address provides.

The wine list focuses on France with the scope that the French wine map requires: Burgundy from the Cote d’Or through Chablis and the Beaujolais, the Loire from Muscadet to Sancerre, Bordeaux across the right and left banks, the northern and southern Rhone, and Alsace. The other wine-producing regions of Europe appear for comparison and variety. For the customer who wants to drink something specific and interesting, the list provides enough selection to reward attention.

The phone is (202) 965-2606 and the bar is open seven nights from 5pm, closing at 10pm or 11pm depending on the night. The shared kitchen between Bar a Vin and Chez Billy Sud produces the food quality at the wine bar that a standalone wine bar with a smaller kitchen operation cannot always achieve. The charcuterie and cheese boards, the small plates of house-made preparations that come out of the Chez Billy Sud kitchen, and the desserts that finish the evening at the wine bar are all produced at the level that a serious French kitchen maintains. For the Georgetown customer who wants the quality of the Chez Billy Sud kitchen without the formality of a reservation and a full three-course dinner, the wine bar provides that access in the walk-in format. The 31st Street address is one block south of M Street, which gives it a slightly removed position from the commercial corridor’s foot traffic while remaining easily walkable from Georgetown’s central retail area.