cantina sauvage brick & Mortar!
The New Sign!
Hello! My apologies for the lack of communication on this platform. We’ve been active on the IG network for quick updates on what’s been happening in the last month and a half with OUR NEW SPACE! In Melrose Market! Those of you who have known me in my pre-cantina days, know that I co-owned Bar Ferd’nand in Melrose Market until 2017. The new Cantina space is going in to that very space . . . I can’t tell you how poignant this is to me. To say the least, it feels like a return home. What’s more, it feels like the time is ripe for a renaissant neighborhood there! I’m super-excited!
My friend and compatriot, Ahmed Suliman will be sharing the space with me, creating snacks and weaving masterful plates with a Leventine palate, through his own project, Café Suliman! Suli and I will be working side by side dishing up tasty treats and glasses of authentic UNFUCTWITH BADDASSERY!!!! SO STOKED!
The last five years have been a journey! I did not start Cantina Sauvage with the thought that i would one day open another wine bar, let alone in the shell of my beloved Bar Ferd’nand. So much has happened in the intervening years since Ferd’nand’s opening, it’s arc of existence: closing, and the conception of Cantina Sauvage. When Ferd was happening, its trajectory toward Natural Wine, was an organic one (no pun intended) . . . And I am not a fan of the term “Natural Wine”, if only because of the moniker, the flag that flies in its honor; the dogma that is extant in the term now. Authentic wine is what really speaks to me . . . and yes, a wine that truly inspires me, that I feel a connection to, that speaks to me, is usually one that is pretty much unfuctwith, naturally made . . . but, a wine, to me, doesn’t have merit, simply because it is naturally made. There is some truly shitty wines, that are natural… mud puddles are natural too . . . it doesn’t mean I want to drink from them. But, if you’re trying to make wine and not use anything to curb the growth of the many different strains of ambient bacteria . . . that shit is hard to do! My hat is off to you. And really, even if your naturally made wine tastes like ass, that’s okay too. I like ass . . . What really bothers me, is that ”natural wine” has become a political statement to some of us. I don’t know about you, but I get enough politics in almost every other aspect of my life and I don’t need my wine to be politicized.
FUCK THAT . . . Wine is a bridge . . . A crossroads of ideas and inspiration.
A bridge? Yes! Across the gap of misunderstandings between you and me;
Across the gap of misunderstanding between nature and science. The one thing that is agriculture,
Art and intellect
The one thing that speaks to us on so many levels . . .
Ones that cannot be verbalized
. . . And when it becomes the rallying cry for a bunch of self important FUCS . . .
I can’t hang . . .
So, that’s as loud as I’m going to get.
I Prefer quiet.
Well, maybe that was a bit of a rant. I was thinking about how this all came about. Cantina, has grown out of the ashes of Bar Ferd’nand, for better or worse, hopefully better! And the spirit is the same, if with a bit more intention, and attention. Suli and I are just grateful to be able to come into the space, back to the neighborhood, and provide a no-bullshit, unfuctwith experience for those of you who venture across our threshold. The doors will be open quite soon, and we hope to see you there!
With love, Always,
Marc