Bar Henry's Genius Wine Program

Hanging out in the heart of NYU territory in Manhattan—not something I usually do. But here’s a great reason to start: the wine program at the now-actually-opened Bar Henry on West Houston Street. John Slover, whom I love from his days at Cru (the restaurant with the country’s best wine list), had the genius idea to offer any of the 100 wines on his market list by the half-bottle. He pours it into one of his nifty half-bottle decanters, serves it for half the price of the whole bottle, then offer the rest of the bottle as a by-the-glass selection for the rest of the night. That means you can get half a bottle of the 2005 Roulot Luchets Meursault for $63, if you don’t want the whole thing for $125. (He’s even offering the program for half-bottles: the 2006 Talbott Sleepy Hollow Chardonnay is $39; $20 if you’re drinking only half of the 375 ml bottle.) Slover has a separate reserve list that’s not part of that policy, though, which means you’ll have to drink that whole bottle of 1996 Krug yourself.