Funky ambience, tasty food

6th and Vine occupies a historic brick building bearing a funky wine and music bar ambience. A sofa section opposite the bar is particularly comfortable. Artistic photographs that are for sale decorate the walls.

The wine list, which has won multiple Wine Spectator awards, is printed on wine labels re-glued to bottles, as well as on chalkboards. I found few familiar selections, however, and prices by the glass seem a little high. A server said that tastes would only be available if a bottle were already open. The three selections I tried turned out to be enjoyable. Prices are confusing, however — different on board and bottle in some cases, and the charges on my check did not match, either. For maybe the third time in my life, the difference was in my favor.

A couple of first courses made positive impressions. A daily special Flatbread ($9.99) with bacon, mozzarella, Parmesan, and goat cheeses, was constructed over crust that generated good flavor of its own, lightly coated with tomato sauce. The smoky flavor of the bacon blended especially well with mellow goat cheese. In the Garlic Shrimp ($8.99), eight large, deveined, tender shrimp joined crisp toasts to soak up moderately hot-spicy garlic, lemon and butter sauce.

The Smoked Turkey Sandwich ($8.99) is grilled, panini-style, framing thinly-sliced turkey that tastes like a commercial product — acceptable, but nothing special. The 6th and Vine Burger ($9.99), however, exhibits solid depth of flavor and crusty texture from an 8-ounce patty in a Kaiser roll, garnished with Bibb lettuce, Roma tomato, and a choice of cheeses (one thin slice of Swiss, on my serving). I added a house salad ($2) of mixed leaf lettuces, shaved carrot, grape tomatoes, cucumbers and red onion, dressed in rather sharp, peppery balsamic vinaigrette.

Poached Pear Salad ($8.99) places the main ingredient on hydroponic Bibb lettuce, then adds blue cheese crumbles and toasted curried pecans, all dressed in pear vinaigrette. These ingredients play off each other very well.

The Crab Cake ($10.99) bears an unusually crisp crust, a function of panko bread crumbs, enclosing flaky-textured, mildly-flavored crab meat. This is dabbed with roasted red pepper coulis, flanked by aioli — good accents. I considered fowl fare the best entrees of my visits. Provencal Chicken Breast ($20.99) is French-cut, tender but a little dryish, enhanced with green olives, capers and zucchini. Duck Breast ($21.99) gains good flavor from crispy skin, although the meat itself was a little firm, well-served by a coulis of cranberry and coriander.

I enjoyed the flavor and texture of the pasta in the Lobster and Crab Ravioli ($14.99). Primary flavors of tomato and cheese emerged, with maybe lobster and crab in the cream sauce, but those ingredients were not as pronounced as I hoped.

The Salmon ($20.99) was moist and fresh-tasting — the fish itself better than usual — bearing a mango topping that seemed a good enough idea but lacked impact, yielding rather bland flavor overall. The Pan-Roasted Grouper ($22.99) — fresh, tender, good quality fish, lightly seared — received a similarly mild impact from a topping of tomatoes, pineapple and onion.

We tried one dessert, an outstanding Gran Mariner Cheesecake ($6.99), bearing a bit of caramel flavor in the crust, accented by Gran Mariner sauce, sprinkled with powdered sugar and surrounded by strawberries.

I experienced very different levels of service on two visits. Enthusiastic and polite on both occasions, personnel consistently provided good food descriptions, but only one cited prices when describing off-menu specials. (A chalk menu board does not show prices, either.) Only one server offered bread (delivered in a clay flower pot), and it was crusty and warm, emitting much better than average flavor. That waitress knew the wines and provided good guidance, too.

In sum, I found 6th and Vine most attractive for casual food, with particular appeal on music nights. See the website for a performance schedule.