Central Bottle brings a new wine-buying experience to Central Square

From a distance, the new Central Bottle on Mass Ave near MIT might look a little too cool and architectural. But get up close, and you’ll notice whimsical touches like light fixtures made of tiny Campari bottles—not to mention the blue-eyed baby toddling around, forcing his parents (busy part-owners Nick Zappia & Liz Vilardi) to keep everything breakable out of his reach.




A visit last night to this week-old spot revealed a lot of warmth behind the glass façade—and a lot of innovation too, including a flat screen TV against one wall for connecting by Skype with winemakers and vineyard managers on other continents during wine tastings at the store (videos of these will be archived at centralbottle.com).

Nick, who also runs The Blue Room in Kendall Square, told me they have a couple bottles open for tasting every night. And on Thursdays the place transforms into a wine bar, with wine for sale by the glass along with bruschetta-like snacks called cichetti.


I’m told they also carry box wines from I Clivi (one white, a Tocai Friulano; one red, a Merlot) that are fantastic. Yes, box wines. Fantastic. If you don’t believe me, consult The Passionate Foodie. In addition to wine, you’ll find a wall hung with salumi, a decent selection of fresh cheeses, enticing jarred preserves like cranberry mostarda and sugar pumpkin & fig chutney, olive oils, Iggy’s bread, and more.


But perhaps one of the most charming things about Central Bottle is the story behind its conception—in which four partners (including David and Maureen Rubino, along with the aforementioned Nick and Liz) rented an apartment in Venice for a week “so they could cook, yell out the window in Italian and make dramatic hand gestures, spy on the neighbors, get lost in the winding streets, go to the opera, celebrate a birthday, meet the Rialto’s fisherman, and most importantly become intimate with the elusive enoteca…so they could come home and share what they love so much about Venice—intimate places to gather, eat cichetti, drink and buy wine.”


I haven’t been there on a Thursday yet, but it seems to me that the folks behind Central Bottle are on the right track to create just such an atmosphere.