BRiX Wood-Fired Wine Bar Opening on the North Side

Paul Tebbets and Chet Garland, co-owners of Toast! Kitchen and Wine Bar, are expanding to a second restaurant, a wine bar on the North Side. They're bringing on  Michael McCoy, past wine director of Eleven Contemporary Kitchen and currently wine director at Soba, as managing partner and wine director of BRiX a Wood-Fired Wine Bar.

For the non wine-nerds among us, Brix refers to the scale used by wine makers to indirectly measure the sweetness of wine grapes, which helps them determine when to harvest and influences other aspects of production.

Like Toast! BRiX will be a genuine wine bar, offering 2-ounce tasters, 4-ounce half-glasses, 8-ounce decanters (their version of a glass) and bottles, all at reasonable prices. (Don't get me started on restaurants that call themselves wine bars and don't have a single pour smaller than a glass).

A seasonally shifting menu will incorporate lots of local ingredients and will heavily feature the wood-burning oven.

They're hoping to open this May. For information and updates, check their website and follow them on twitter.