For those who have been searching for a serious wine, cheese, and charcuterie bar located somewhere between downtown Kansas City and Leawood that doesn’t take itself too seriously, Vintage ’78 Wine Bar in downtown Overland Park is open and ready to serve you.
The stylish new wine bar gives off fancy French bistro vibes, with soaring ceilings, decorative molding, blue-velvet banquette benches, and white marble tables, but the goal of Vintage ’78 is to create an elegant place that provides great service, with a world-class selection of wine, cheese, and cured meats in a casual, fun, and decidedly unstuffy way.
Michael Scherzberg and his partners, Megan Downes, general manager, and Kyle Ketchum, executive chef, have not only the industry experience, but the wine and food knowledge to bring some of the best bottles of grape juice and bar snacks together to your table, in addition to some good cheeky fun with their first concept.
An example would be the nine wine flights that are on the menu here, some with hilarious names including “Flowers & Dead Things” and “What the Funk am I Tasting?” At Vintage ’78, even the modern art on the wall has a story (in fact, there is a story about almost everything on the menu). An eclectic playlist fills the space, as you enjoy a glass of wine and their “cheese clock,” a platter that offers a curated collection of 12 cheeses you can sample from around the world with accompaniments like honey, pickled green tomatoes from Kansas City Canning Co., and fig jam. There are even plans to have a barstool at the bar with a plaque on it that is dedicated to the Cheers television show regular Norm Peterson, not to mention the fact that everyone working here is in a T-shirt and blue jeans, even when opening incredible bottles of wine.
The whole place feels like a delicious mystery studded with clues, Easter eggs, and things hiding in plain sight just waiting to be discovered. Although they are popping some serious bottles here it is always with a sense of fun, like the “Sommelier’s Blind Flight,” a wine flight where you are presented with six different glasses of wine to taste blind, just like people who sit for the sommelier exam. In this blind tasting, you are asked to sample all six wines for a chance to test your own ability to identify the age of the wine, name of the grape, and country of origin. Guess all six wines correctly and your $30 flight is free.
The partners also plan to eventually offer educational programming with wine classes, tastings, and winemaker’s talks, in addition to a serious wine club, which will offer several tiers so you can afford to swirl, sip, and savor at any level.
That is something else that is unusual about Vintage ’78, although this place offers one of the most thoughtful wine lists in town which can be sampled by the pour, half glass, or full glass, the prices are quite reasonable for the quality of wine they are serving. It is all part of their grand strategy to build Vintage ’78 into your consideration set. They may be doing away with the pretense of wine, but not the expertise they share about it.
Don’t let the fact that Vintage ’78 is a wine bar stop you from ordering a cocktail, either, as Downes is a terrific craft-cocktail bartender and responsible for the classic cocktail list. She is also happy to make something special if she has the ingredients on hand.
A New York Sour cocktail might just be the perfect cocktail to order at a wine bar, because it is basically a whiskey sour, with a float of fruity red wine on top. It is a drink that is colorful, tart, and sweet with a silky texture from the egg white, and just the thing to up your home bartending skills.
New York Sour
- 2 ounces rye whiskey or bourbon
- 1 ounce lemon juice
- .75 ounce simple syrup
- . 5 ounce red wine
- 1 egg white*
- 1 dash of Angostura Bitters
Combine whiskey (they use Rittenhouse Rye), lemon juice, simple syrup, Angostura, and egg white in a shaker. Shake without ice until emulsified then add ice and shake briefly to chill. Strain into rocks glass over ice. Float a fruity red wine (like malbec) by pouring gently over the back of a bar spoon held just above the surface of the drink.
*The cocktail can be made without egg white, either by swapping out aquafaba or omitting altogether.