Tavola
Fifty Glasses Deep in Uptown Minneapolis
Uptown · Minneapolis · Italian · Visit Website ↗
Reviewed March 29, 2026
Wingman Metrics
First Impression
Fifty wines by the glass at a neighborhood Italian spot in Uptown — that's not a typo. The list signals that someone here is paying serious attention, and when you spot names like Biondi-Santi and Ornellaia on a menu that also serves pasta to locals on a Tuesday night, you do a double take.
Selection Deep Dive
The list leans into Italy with conviction — exactly what you want from a place called Tavola — but it doesn't stop there. Napa shows up with Joseph Phelps holding it down on the California side, Domaine Serene represents Oregon Pinot with some weight behind it, and Burgundy rounds out the old-world credibility. The range from everyday drinking to serious-occasion bottles is genuinely impressive for a neighborhood restaurant, and the inclusion of Ornellaia suggests they're not just going through the motions. Gaps are hard to find when the spread is this wide, though South America and the Southern Hemisphere are conspicuously absent.
By the Glass
Fifty by-the-glass options is an absurd number in the best possible way — most dedicated wine bars don't hit that mark. At around $10 a glass as the entry point, this is where Tavola really earns its reputation; you can explore the list without committing to a bottle, which is exactly how a program this deep should be used.
Domaine Serene Pinot Noir — $10/glass
Domaine Serene is a serious Willamette Valley producer whose bottles regularly run $40–60 retail. Getting it by the glass at a neighborhood Italian spot at this price point is the kind of find that makes Tuesday nights worth planning around.
Biondi-Santi Brunello di Montalcino
Most people at a neighborhood Italian restaurant are going to order the house red and call it a night. That means the Biondi-Santi — one of Brunello's founding estates — is sitting there waiting for the one table that knows what they're looking at. Don't be the table that walks past it.
Joseph Phelps Insignia
Insignia is a great wine, but it's also one of the most recognizable names in Napa and carries the markup to match. If you're spending serious money here, the Italian side of the list offers more interesting value for the dollar.
Ornellaia + Wood-fired pasta
Ornellaia's Super Tuscan blend — Cabernet, Merlot, Petit Verdot — has the structure to stand up to wood-fired char and the fruit to complement a rich pasta sauce. It's the kind of pairing that makes the whole table lean in.
Tuesday — Half-off bottles of wine every Tuesday
🎲 The Bottom Line
Tavola is doing something genuinely unusual: running a deep, producer-focused wine list through a casual neighborhood Italian frame, and doing it at prices that don't punish you for exploring. Tuesday half-price bottles alone make this worth putting in your rotation.
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