Four Ways to Meet New People (and Discover New Wines!)

Four Ways to Meet New People (and Discover New Wines!)

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Wish you had someone to share that bottle of bubs or precious Pinot Noir with? There are all kinds of places and events to meet fellow wine lovers (and singles) in this town—and even if you don’t end up with some digits, you can at least bring a bottle of something new and delicious home.


Every Wednesday evening (6–9 pm), you can crowd the back bar area at William Cross Wine Merchants on upper Polk Street for a variety of wine tastings that are unpretentious but always tasty. Steven Sherman and his staff enthusiastically lead tastings through a country, a region, a style, or a single winery. The tastings are usually $15; sign up for the mailing list (on the homepage) to keep up with which wines are being featured each week. 2253 Polk St. at Green St., 415-346-1314.

This Thursday May 30th at 7 pm is the first tablehopper singles event at the recently remodeled E&O Asian Kitchen. This sit-down event will be a bit like a mash-up of speed dating and a wine tasting and a party, featuring eight wines from the Languedoc-Roussillon region, and Josiah Baldivino—the head sommelier at Michael Mina—will lead the tasting. There will be plenty of bites, like oysters, lapsang souchong tea–deviled eggs, and oxtail dumplings. The age range is 35–49, with room for 20 men and 20 women (who identify as hetero). There are just a couple spots left for gentlemen (the ladies tickets have sold out, sorry!). You can get your tickets here (tickets are $65). This will be the first of a series of tablehopper singles events for different age groups and sexual orientations—sign up for the tablehopper newsletter to hear about future events. 314 Sutter St. at Grant Ave.

Did you know every Friday, The Wine Club in SoMa does a $5 happy hour from 5–7 pm? They open up all the new wine they get in the store that week and share it with customers (so sometimes customers can taste as many as 15 wines). They also serve some food, like sushi, or Indian, Mediterranean, or Mexican bites. 953 Harrison St. at 6th St., 415-512-9086.

And on Friday May 31st, head on over to El Rio on Friday for another installment of Mugsy Wine Bar, which is a pop-up wine bar that focuses on women, urban and people of color winemakers. This time around, they’ll have Gratta Wines, plus bubbles from Rock Wall and Brown Estate, and even some salumi and bites (you’ll be able to taste some of the bread from the buzzed-about Fox and Lion). Mugsy happens on the back patio from 5:30–8:30 pm and glasses will be in the $7-8 range. 3158 Mission St. at Precita, 415-282-3325.

Marcia Gagliardi is the founder of the weekly tablehopper e-column; subscribe and get more food news and gossip at tablehopper.com. Follow her on Twitter: @tablehopper.

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