Exclusively Napa brings California wine vibe to Crystal Lake
Exclusively Napa opened in June with the goal of bringing the laid-back California tasting room feel to Crystal Lake. A wine bar and retail store, the spot is a great place to start or continue your wine education.
Motif: Going with its name, the bar's walls are painted with vineyard images, and a TV shows scenes from Napa Valley when it's not tuned to a sports game. The front of the spot is flanked by two huge wine racks with a large bar featuring a display of their liquor selections. You can grab a seat at one of the tall tables in the bar area, or head to the dining room, which features small tables set with black tablecloths and candles. Hanging red and orange lights help add to the mellow ambience.
Crowd: Weekends are the busiest times. Friday brings out an earlier crowd, while on Saturday visitors tend to come for dinner and stick around to drink. The bar mostly caters to the 35 to 40 set.
Service: Our server checked in quickly and regularly and was friendly and knowledgeable. While she was a vegetarian so hadn't personally tried some of the dishes, she was able to offer plenty of advice on her favorite meatless fare and let us know what other items were popular.
Liquid consumption: Exclusively Napa has 20 wines by the glass with the list changing about every six weeks. The store sells 286 different wines by the bottle and you can drink one with dinner for the same price you would pay if you were buying it to take home. Flights have been very popular, giving drinkers the opportunity to expand their palettes by trying a series of three white, red, Italian or sweet wines. If you're looking for more wine education, the bar plans to start hosting classes and tastings this month.
Exclusively Napa also features a small cocktail menu with all the standards and a few unique blends like the Dante's Ring of Fire, Absolut Peppar served with hand-stuffed habanero and pepper jack olives.
Food: The menu revolves around small plates meant to be shared, including plenty of appetizers, flatbread pizzas and cheese flights, plus some entrees and daily specials. We went with our server's recommendations and tried her favorite, the sweet and spicy bruschetta. The dish lived up to its name, with sweet mango chutney getting a kick from hot peppers and blending well with the creamy cheese it's served on top of. The garlic hummus was also very good; the flavorful spread was served with plenty of slices of red pepper and English cucumber, carrots, pieces of bread and crackers. Keeping with the flight theme, Exclusively Napa offers cheesecake, chocolate and cupcake dessert flights. The cupcakes from the neighboring SweetPea Cakes were excellent, especially the s'mores cupcake, which had graham crackers baked into the chocolate cake and was topped with a creamy marshmallow frosting.
Music: Musicians set up in a corner near the entrance of the bar Thursday, Friday and Saturday, performing primarily jazz and Rat Pack tunes.
Parking: There is plenty of free street parking within a short walk of the bar.
Overall: The relaxed wine bar offers a great place to try something new and find a good bottle to take home.
Exclusively Napa
35 N. Williams St., Crystal Lake, (815) 479-0770, exclusivelynapawine.com
<b>Hours: </b>4 to 11 p.m. Monday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday, noon to 6 p.m. Sunday