Photo provided by Tootles and French
July 29, 2024 By Shane O’Brien
Astoria wine bar Tootles and French has launched a new program of classes and events, showcasing unconventional wine-growing regions and partnering with several local businesses.
The wine bar, which opened at 36-15 Ditmars Blvd. in April 2023, kicked off a series of educational and interactive classes in June, and a diverse series of events is on the horizon.
The series, which is the brainchild of Tootles and French Events Coordinator Tony Lipari, has already featured five classes from Pamela Vachon of Murray’s Cheese, detailing how to pair certain wines with certain cheeses.
Tootles and French has also partnered with the Honey House for classes on fusing wine with honey and with Astoria dessert shop Pastries by Anne to demonstrate how to pair wines with sweet-flavored foods.
Charcuterie board at Tootles and French. Photo provided by Tootles and French
Lipari said the wine and cheese classes are so popular that they are often booked out weeks in advance.
“Pamela is great,” Lipari said. Whenever she teaches a class, we’ve already booked the next one. People are so quick to sign up.”
Tootles and French is also running an “Indigenous Grape Series” as part of its new events schedule, with classes taught by specialists from certain regions of the world.
The series featured a class on the history of Armenian wine on July 22, with similar classes on Sicilian and Romanian wines set to take place in September.
Lipari said Tootles and French hosts at least one class or event every two weeks, with a maximum of around 12 people per class to maximize engagement between participants and teachers.
“We’ve been capping classes at about 12 because we want to keep class sizes small,” Lipari said. “We can go above that if we have outrageous demand, but we do like to keep it somewhat small. It’s intimate, it’s familiar.”
Tootles and French owner and founder Chad Goldsmith said the wine bar has also hosted several classes from New York winemakers to promote locally produced wines.
The front room at Tootles and French Photo provided by Tootles and French
The wine bar has also been hosting a series of “wine dinners” since July last year, pairing wines from a specific region with foods from that region. Goldsmith said Tootles and French has hosted at least one wine dinner every month since the series began last year.
Lipari and Goldsmith fastidiously plan each wine dinner and wine class, sitting down with their kitchen staff at least three months before a planned wine dinner to curate a food menu from the region in question.
They also regularly meet with local businesses who are hosting talks at Tootles and French to select the perfect wine to accompany the local product.
Despite their significant attention to detail, each class, demonstration and wine dinner is open to wine connoisseurs and novices alike.
“Most of the people coming to these classes just want to learn and have never studied wine before,” Goldsmith said. “They have never had the opportunity to learn these things, so this is a little bit more of a low-key setting. It’s very interactive.”
“It’s not something where you’re getting lectured. There is always back and forth between the people who are giving the class. We have people who have never taken a wine glass before, who have never even understood what they were ordering and have maybe only ordered house wine in the past.”
“We’re not looking to train Master Sommeliers here. We’re looking to give the general public a base knowledge and give them the chance to learn about things they want to learn about.”
Tootles and French is also set to start a new “all-night” happy hour once a week. The new event will feature a limited cocktail menu with drinks related to a specific cause and a percentage of each drink going to a specific charity.
Tootles and French is yet to finalize a day for the new weekly event, but Goldsmith said he is aiming to introduce it on Mondays.
Goldsmith has always emphasized social causes and diversity since starting Tootles and French in April last year.
He said he consistently prioritizes growers and distillers from underrepresented backgrounds, pointing out several brands in stock at the wine bar that fight for a range of social causes.
Elephant Gin, for example, donates 15% of its proceeds to protecting African wildlife, with a particular focus on protecting and conserving elephants.
Goldsmith also highlighted a collection of Bosman Family Wines from a South African vineyard that empowers female winegrowers and vineyard workers.
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