Lady Somm Style: Kathryn Weil

Meet the always sunny and smiling Kathryn Weil!  Kathryn is currently transitioning from Wine Director of Santa Monica’s  Rustic Canyon Wine Bar and Milo & Olive to sommelier for Terroni‘s soon to be opened second location in downtown Los Angeles. I love this lady and the energy she brings to the wine game!

How did you become a sommelier?

I moved to New York City after college with a degree in English and a dream of being an actress – which meant I was looking for a job in a restaurant.  I started out as a back waiter in this darling little place called August in the West Village.  I knew nothing about food or wine – so I was completely overwhelmed but totally IN LOVE.  I think I was the only actor in New York who adored her day job.  I bought Karen MacNeil’s The Wine Bible and it took me a year to actually read through the whole thing but I was hooked.

What’s your daily uniform?

Clothes: At Rustic Canyon, the dress code was upscale casual.  So I loved to wear fun dresses and skirts – preferably colors and prints.  I love vintage.  My favorite is a blue and white striped belted 50’s dress with pockets.  Now that I’m at Terroni I’ve got a sweet striped apron.

Shoes: Heels – I don’t feel like myself without them.  That being said, they’ve got to be super comfortable to wear all day. Usually it’s my vintage Mary Jane pumps or my Indigo ankle boots. I love heels.

Jewelry:  Always – I can’t even go to the gym without earrings. On the floor I keep it simple and small – my grandmother’s diamond studs and my recently acquired engagement ring.

Hair & Make-Up: I have naturally curly hair, so unless I blow-dry it straight, I’ll wear it up to be out of the way – a high bun or low-french roll, 40s style. I wear eye make-up, never lipstick.

 

Do you transition your clothing from daytime duties to nighttime service?

On days when I’m stocking or working in the cellar then absolutely!  I’ll wear jeans and a long-sleeved t-shirt so I can move easily, lift stuff & get sweaty.  When I’m tasting, I usually wear my evening uniform or something a little nicer – like jeans and a pretty blouse.  But whether I’m pushing the dolly, doing inventory or going to a tasting I’ll be wearing heels.  I told you, I love heels.

Three things you can’t leave home without.

1.    Wine key

2.    My tasting notebook

3.    extra bobby pins

Three things a sommelier should never do or wear.

1.    Smoke.

2.    Wear perfume. Everybody says it and everybody’s right.  It’s distracting and unprofessional.

3.    Be pretentious. There is always more to learn.

What do you eat and drink at the end of your shift?

I’d like to say that I’m perfectly disciplined, eating kale and drinking a single glass of champagne.  But I have a big giant huge sweet tooth.  My standard go-to at Rustic Canyon was a glass of Le Corti dei Farfensi “Carennum” Vino Cotto or Vinos Barbeito “Savannah” Verdelho Madeira Special Reserve with a walnut torte (a la mode).

Top photo by Elizabeth Daniels

I Spy: Street Art

Well hello Mister Man currently residing at the corner of Myers St and 7th in Downtown LA!

What a wonderful thing to stumble upon one fine sunny afternoon. I just watched Exit Through The Gift Shop so I am paying A LOT more attention to buildings and walls around my neighborhood and all over Los Angeles. There’s so much to discover once you just stop for a moment and look up. This, on the the other hand, was hard to miss. I LOVE the combination of colors happening here- the blue of the sky and faded awning with the yellow and red of the building trim and curb juxtaposed with the graphic black and white image. My eyes are pleased.

PS- just down the street from this fine fellow is Tony’s Saloon. Tony’s is a fresh juices, small batch liquor kind of spot disguised as a dive. And if you like whiskey (a lot of whiskey) and a southern rock vibe this is your jam. Hungry? Order a pizza pie from Toddy G’s next door and they’ll deliver it through an adjoining window right to the bar.

Drinking! Eating! Art!

A Goy Walks into a Kosher Wine Shop…



And leaves with a 2004 Barbera d’Alba. Badum-bum.

glass

skyfront

I spent today exploring a part of LA’s hasidic Jewish neighborhood, otherwise known as N. Fairfax Ave. The street is lined with bakeries, the famed Canter’s deli and fading signs and storefronts of a once thriving strip of Orthodox outposts. I strolled into what I thought would be a wine shop named My Kosher Wine as it states on their website. But, in actuality, it is a single aisle in a seemingly nameless kosher grocery. But a long aisle. And it wasn’t stocked with only Manishewitz and Baron Herzog. There were Chateaux wines from Bordeaux, bottles from Chile, California, Spain, New York, Australia, South Africa, Israel (of course) and also…Italy.  I first realized Kosher wine was being made in Italy, of all places, when I visited Andrea Pandolfo of Sant’Andrea, a winery an hour or so south of Rome. They make fantastic wine and in the past 10 years realized with just a few more  steps in the process they could also add Kosher wine to their lineup. Good Italian Kosher wine. Gotta love it.

Read full post