Best New Restaurant -TarTine
John McDonnell’s Rocky River wine bar is nearly perfect in design. Boasting a masterful arrangement of setting, mood, food and drink, Tartine recreates the unfeigned quintessence of a charming French bistro. On warm summer nights, the façade of doors opens to a graceful courtyard, uniting inside and out. On chilly nights, a sturdy old bar welcomes guests with equal cheer, and the exposed brick walls and blood-red tin ceiling create a snug embrace. The wine-friendly Mediterranean- themed menu is not huge by any stretch, but it does offer a wonderful assortment of small plates, salads, sandwiches, pizzas and entrees. And the fact that this deliriously delightful restaurant accomplishes all this with a Lilliputian-size kitchen just adds to the wonder of it all. — DT