West Village Wine Bar & Charcuterie Shop Starts Cracking Open Bottles This Month

After more than a year’s worth of anticipation, forthcoming West Village bar and bottle shop, Brix Wine & Charcuterie Boutique, is poised to open this month in a historic bank building at the corner of Kercheval and Van Dyke. Owner Mikiah Westbrooks tells Eater she’s in the final stages of securing licensing and inspections.

Designed by Westbrooks herself with help from her husband, the bar occupies the space formerly home to the bank’s service window and vault and seats roughly 40 patrons. The narrow service window area features small two-top tables dressed up with copper wall hangings and comfy couches. The ceiling will be draped with fabric.

Brenna Houck

In the main bar area, customers can gather around two communal tables. The vault is being converted into a private lounge area with an exclusive high-end bottle and charcuterie service. More space — between 50 and 100 seats — will eventually be available outside on a patio extending across the parking lot toward the neighboring dry cleaners.

Brenna Houck

Westbrooks, who has a background in marketing, told Eater last year that she has long dreamt of owning her own wine bar. But when her mother was diagnosed with cancer in 2014 she began seriously reevaluating her life and what she hoped to accomplish. “The whole time I was dealing with this my mom was battling cancer and she ended up passing,” Westbrooks says. “I had moments where I was like 'Why am I doing this? I should just stop.' But something inside of me said, ‘You know what, you have to keep going,’ because that's what she would want me to do.”

From the name — a reference to the amount of sugar in wine grapes prior to processing — to the menu, Brix is entirely focused on wine. Customers won’t find any cocktails here. “We want to make sure we provide the best products — the best meats, the best cheeses, the best wines,” Westbrooks says. “There's nothing else here other than water.”

Bottles will be affordable, ranging from around $9 to $40. “Something that's really, really cost effective but still really good,” she says. “I mean there's no reason why you can't get a South African red for $11 bucks. You shouldn't have to pay $40 to $60 for it because it's not about the price.” Charcuterie boards will also be focused on quality and presentation, with a selection of domestic and imported meats, smoked meats, cheese, chocolate and nuts.

“I know about wine, I know how to present it, I know what I like and I wanted to create a space that I wouldn't mind going to,” she says, “so I'm hoping that's what Brix will do for everybody else.”

• Brix Wine Bar Lands in West Village Bank Building [ED]

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