San Francisco's Frenchie Wine Bar: curated wines, and a personal story

A little taste of Europe right here in San Francisco. Frenchie Wine Bar is bringing together thoughtfully curated wines, hospitality, and a personal story that spans continents. Co-founded by Natalia Morarasu, who grew up in the vineyards in Moldova, and Joel Arias, a Peruvian-born sommelier with experience at some of San Francisco's top restaurants, Frenchie is all about making wine feel welcoming, memorable, fun, and not stuffy. Today, we're welcoming the founders of the Neighborhood Wine Destination. You also brought your chef, Edgar. Welcome to you all. Before we get into it, I have to say, your namesake is here. The little dog that inspired it. He's right down there. Can you bring him up so we can show? Hi, Frenchie. There you go. That's the inspiration behind the bar name. Tell me about Frenchie. So we rescued him from Miami. and it's uh it was our kind of like taking care and took our relationship to a next level and when we decided to open our wine bar so we're like what what name should we put it and the most like to inspire it was him so that's perfect i think he was barking at brian a little bit a while ago right all right so uh tell me about the wines because um both of you from moldova and from Peru you guys bring a little bit when you make these wines tell me more about it Joel yeah well the wine bar it's our food inspiration it's bringing a little bit of my roots which is Peru so our menu is oriented in Peruvian flavors so I brought a few of our dishes that we have in our menu and what I like from our wine bar is that Peruvian food has so much richness and so culture oriented that you can pair with different type of wines different styles all over the world so I brought a few examples that I want you to try today and these are wines that if I call you you're gonna show me wines that maybe I haven't tried before from your regions right yes so I have one from California from Mendocino, I have one Hungarian wine from Eastern Europe represented Natalia, one Pinot Noir from Burgundy, and one Malbec represented South America from Riccitelli, which is one of my favorite producers. Let's start with this one. The Hungarian one. Yeah, so the Hungarian one. The Moldovan one. It's a nice Királyudvar with a great piece of full mint. It has a nice richness, honeysuckle, apple, ginger. So it has a nice roundness, and this goes perfect. And the food pairing is amazing because you can pair with one of our chicken stew empanadas. So when you try this and you eat a bite of the empanadas, the combination is perfect. One thing I've noticed for your customers, say it's not stuffy. That's why I said it's not stuffy. It's fun, right? Yes. A lot of people are intimidated by wine. How do you guys do that? How did you guys make it so it's still very European, but it's fun? So you don't want it to be stuffy. You do that on purpose, right? Exactly, because we want them to feel good and welcome and to come back to our place. And especially the wine, Joel is choosing. He makes sure the wines meet the expectation of the guests and doesn't get heavy when they can go to another glass or even the third glass and they feel okay. So that is our priority. Right. That's that's perfect because you can try maybe you can try a little bit of this little bit of that now the food Hi chef looks delicious. By the way, what would I have with let me can I step over here real quick? I see something that has my name on it What kind of wine can I have with this I want you to try a bite of that chicken empanada stew Okay with the Hungarian wine and tell me what you think. Okay, by the way, Brian you can have some of this too, you know I brought for all the team here. What about this? Me too, Frank. Oh, that's good. That's very good. It pairs really well. The wine doesn't overwhelm the food, and also the empanada is not, you know, combines the flavors really well. Before we go, tell me where Frenchy is, and is it hard to get a reservation? So Frenchy is located in San Francisco between North Valley and Mission. So it's on 1007 Guerrero Street. So it's like a corner neighborhood. I was on it It's not hard to get the reservation. We having our system in talk which More than welcome everybody can make it or welcome. Welcome. I don't welcome as well. This is all very beautiful Congratulations on you know, Moldova and Peru. That's a great combination Chef, thank you very much for making this beautiful food. Can I, can I touch? Can I, can you bring? Of course. Okay, he's well behaved. today hi Frenchie okay uh thank you guys Frank let's go back to you while I'm here with the VIP oh you've got a little wine to drink and a little uh little Frenchie kiss or two good stuff Sal all right well Chris