Bottega

(photograph: Lucy Harker, Loose Images)

Just when you thought that Oxford's Jericho neighbourhood couldn't get any hipper, a new kid on the block moves in. That new kid is Bottega Food and Wine Bar. Located opposite the Albion Beatnik Bookstore, this small stretch of Walton Street could give Little Clarendon a run for its money. And what is a hipster enclave without a wine bar, anyway?

This bank holiday weekend I found myself there twice. In two days. Clearly, there's a certain magnetism to its exposed walls and floors, which, not more than three weeks ago, wore the tired carpet and wall coverings of Uddins Manzil Indian restaurant.

As I chatted with Chris (co-owner with friend Maurizio) and Max Mason from The Big Bang (Bottega's neighbour), reminiscing about Uddin's slow slide from culinary grace, there were fleeting pangs of guilt for feeling just that happy that Bottega had moved in.

When the owners of Uddins Manzil decided to open for an evening (never any posted hours, and multiple attempts at identifying weekly patterns were futile), they made a decent curry. It was probably reheated from frozen, due to such erratic hours, but if you could push those thoughts to one side, the staff's friendliness and warm atmosphere of the place could go some way in making up for this.

The more I thought about it the more I realised I wasn't tied to the mediocre curry, but more so to the circumstances behind meals shared there. There was the time that myself and two friends collapsed into a booth after spending an hour trying to liberate a pigeon that had flown into my open window one afternoon and, having shat on an essay chapter on Heidegger and the greater part of Virginia Woolf's oeuvre, decided to roost on my bookshelf and refused to move. There was many a birthday dinner had there, and, given the fact that, when open, it was nearly almost empty, Uddins was the go-to spot for an impromptu meal with a large group.

Bottega is still ironing out a few wrinkles--their website is under construction--but word of mouth seems to be all that is necessary to ensure ample traffic on the weekends, and I've no doubt that steady streams of customers will be flowing in and out on weeknights in no time.

The wine list is carefully edited, with just over a dozen reds and whites to choose from, along with a handful of sparkling wines and champagne. Friends and I devoured an Adlestrop cheese with bread and fruity olive oil, along with some wild boar chorizo. The reds I've sampled so far have ranged from a sharper-than-usual Rioja to a wonderful glass from Portugal, and my 4 GBP glass of prosecco was both delicious and more than reasonably priced.

Benvenuto, Bottega!
123 Walton Street