Looking from my table to the bar area of LouVino

Through the years I’ve posted restaurant thoughts (I hate to think of it as reviews) on this blog. Now that I’m retired and have time to take in some interesting lunch spots, I’m going to try to start posting more.

I still do some wine writing, but if you haven’t followed along, I retired the regular wine column last fall.

So part of the plan going forward is to add quickie reviews. Those reviews will include a couple of pics, some thoughts on the food, service and probably atmosphere.

I visited LouVino on Mass Ave today for lunch. I actually tried to visit a couple of weeks ago and was told rather brusquely that it was 1:50 p.m. and the kitchen closed for lunch at 2 p.m. I understand that but didn’t feel very welcomed to return.

Fries in a jar and okay skirt steak.

But I did give it a try today and enjoyed the experience. It is a little pricey for lunch. I had the lunch special of sandwich, side and drink for $15. My skirt steak sandwich on brioche was pretty tasty. Onions, stilton mayo, and arugula livened the sandwich up a bit. The steak had a bit of  almost a burnt flavor after waitress suggested it would arrive medium rare. The flavor was pretty good though but skirt steak can be tough and this was a little too chewy.

The fries were crispy and plentiful and the two warm chocolate chip cookies, included, were very good.

And by the way, my server was great and responded promptly to a couple of simple requests.

Three nice old world wines for $17

Of course, being a wine spot I skipped the cola. They offer a page of red and another of white wine flights with 2 oz. pours. The choices were really great. I paid $17 for a Spanish, French, and Italian wine. They were all good but most are available at local wine shops for $20 or less per bottle.

So with tax, I dropped $34 for lunch – not something I’m going to do very often.

The place is beautiful but quite empty at 1 p.m. The decor is modern and stylistic. There is clearly seating for a big lunch or dinner crowd.

I’d probably go back but at the price the food was more okay and wow. The wine flight a little pricey. Still, it’s nice to have a place where you can sample a wine flight, even if its a couple bucks overpriced.