Williamsburg’s Latest Wine Bar Doubles Up As a Low-Key Nightclub

There’s no dearth of popular wine bars in Williamsburg — like the Four Horseman and D.O.C. Wine bar — but one with a shiny disco ball in a dance room in the back, as well as no food or drink menus might be a first.

The group that runs popular neighborhood restaurant and cocktail bar Loosie’s Kitchen and Loosie Rouge has opened Sauced, a 40-seat casual wine bar at 331 Bedford Avenue, near South Third Street, that isn’t following the traditional wine bar path.

“We really want to flip the wine bar world on its head,” says Damien del Rio, one of the top brass at Four Happy Men Hospitality.

Sauced has seating up front at a sleek wooden bar, but there’s also a room at the back with a disco ball that will host karaoke nights, live music, and DJ nights. As for the wine, there’s a 150-bottle list and 20 wines by the glass that spans both traditional and natural offerings from around the world, but there isn’t really a menu.

That’s how winemaker Jordan Veran runs things. He previously worked as the wine manager at L’avant Comptoir, a popular Parisian wine bar from celebrity chef Yves Camdeborde, located next to his hard-to-get-into bistro Le Comptoir du Relais Saint-Germain. Veran similarly eschewed a menu in Paris and hopes to do the same in Brooklyn.

Instead he’ll talk to customers, suss out their interests, and offer them a few samples before letting them settle on their drink of choice. “People seem to get really afraid around wine, and this is really about breaking the codes around drinking,” says Veran.

Briana Balducci/Sauced

The food menu, only written on butcher paper behind the bar, leans toward small plates and has been created by alumni of Greenpoint’s French-Canadian bistro Chez Ma Tante and Williamsburg’s Peruvian restaurant Llama Inn, Facundo Kairuz and Henry Lu respectively. Dishes at Sauced include pork belly pinxtos; tortilla chips served with whipped crème fraiche; French-style baked potatoes served with a mushroom aioli; and focaccia topped with shaved comté cheese, tomato jam, and arugula.

In the summer, Sauced will open up its backyard and have ping pong, backgammon, and other games.

Aside from Loosie’s Kitchen and Loosie Rouge, Four Men Hospitality — the group that runs all these establishments — also operates a recently-opened event space and cafe in the neighborhood called Etiquette. Sauced is open daily from 5 p.m. to 2 a.m.

Mylene Fernandes/Sauced [Official]