Update: Vino Volo has pushed back its opening date to Friday, November 16 according to a restaurant rep. It will be passing out free champagne to customers on opening day.
You know Vino Volo. It’s the wine bar where you chug a goblet of Grüner Veltliner to ward off fears about that flying death bus you’re about to strap yourself into; where absent-minded twentysomethings pick up a last-minute bottle of Christmas Cabernet en route to Mom and Dad’s. (For little sis: a pink neck pillow and an US Weekly from Hudson News.)
The airport terminal mainstay kind of changed the game for airport drinking—freeing discerning wine sippers from the oak-chipped and overly fruity selections at regular airport bars. And the food is pretty good, too. Vino Volo is not, however, a place we think about much on days that don’t involve an invasive full-body scan.
But the wine bar chain wants to change all that, starting Friday, November 9, when it opens its first-ever non-airport shop in Bethesda. (A second one is planned for Tysons Corner in early 2013. After that: the world.) The 2,500-square-foot bar and retail store will offer flights of wine, small plates, and bottles to go, and will carry over a lot of menu items from the airport stores while also introducing some new things—seasonal pizzettas, bacon brittle, and roasted bone marrow among those. There is also a VIP table for special occasions. Look for it to open around 4:30.
Vino Volo. 7243-7247 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda.
