Press Club Morphs Into a Wine Bar With Local Beer Program

On Saturday the Press Club served its first draft beer from one of three newly installed taps—the best part of a domestic, mostly San Francisco-centric beer program they rolled out over the weekend. Here's the new beer menu for your early perusal. And now today, they'll release this brand new wine list, running about thirty deep, complete with sparkling varietals. It's a far cry from the six wineries on offer when the original "urban tasting room" came onto the scene in 2008. Based on customer feedback, owners Jan Wiginton and Andrew Chun decided its time for a change. And the transformation from Press Club to Press Club Wine Bar and Lounge is officially underway.

"We wanted to open things up," says Chun. "Our clientele is actually more about the experience of wine than the experience of a wine tasting room." Thanks to the addition of 30 new stools inside Press Club, drinkers can now belly up to all six of the former "tasting bars" for a drink. The new beer and wine programs will be matched with "more substantial" food offerings. Cheshire Cat Catering Company (who's always been behind the food here) will release something similar to this new expanded menu on Monday of next week.

And coming up in May, look out for a "Visiting Vinters" program every Thursday from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Different winemakers will appear on-site to create a more intimate tasting bar experience; so folks who were in love with the original urban tasting bar idea can still get that. Press Club's publicist tells us the goal here is to create more of a neighborhood hangout. To that end, expect wine on tap, and a beer and cheese pairing menu coming very soon. Apparently there are even more changes in the works too. (An executive chef on board, perhaps? The possibility of a full-on liquor license?) Long-term plans will be revealed when the powers that be are good and ready.

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