Junior's Wine Bar

It was Christmas present time with two of my besties, the Blonde and the Redhead, the other night. Yes, I know we're a bit late, but we've done it later! We had originally planned to have dinner at Sobo Cafe, but when the Redhead wanted to try Junior's Wine Bar, we were game.

If you know Federal Hill at all, Junior's is where Vespa used to be. I wasn't a huge fan of Vespa and I always thought it had a funny small. Their metal chairs were so uncomfortable that by the end of dinner, my feet had gone numb. It was also pretty small, very cramped and supremely loud, with a cement floor and lots of metal.

When I walked in, I had to look around to make sure I had gone in the right building. The place was HUGE! There had been an old Muhley's Bakery, where, after leaving the bars in the area, you could smell the donuts. Juniors has taken over that space and the building now goes the depth of the block. They have little areas with couches for sitting and sipping, a private room towards the back and plenty of other space.

The menu was pretty limited, but nothing was more than $20. For a wine bar, they had a very limited wine list, which surprised me. The Redhead had a red wine and the Blonde and I both had whites. The B and I split a salmon appetizer, which was on an olive bread. Very good and nicely presented. The R had a tuna entree, the B had a pork shank and I had a Kobe beef burger. For dessert, we had a tiny choclate creme brulee, a lemon tart, and peanut butter and raspberry jam cheesecake, which didn't appeal to me in the slightest.

The total for dinner with about six or seven glasses of wine was just a little more than $100. There were a couple of big parties in there, but overall it was quiet. They don't have a website up yet, which I think is a big mistake, but you can google them and find their info.

Sorry about the bad image quality. The place is rather dark, and I didn't want to be shooting off my flash.