The Ivy Hotel's Ultra Lounge Turns into a Wine Bar
San Diego's Ivy Hotel will unveil a new Ultra Lounge and Wine Bar on Oct. 1 to give you more and cheaper options to get tipsy off of vino.
Although the hotel's been promoting the "new Ultra Lounge and Wine Bar," it's not so much "new" as it is a shift in focus to wines. The Ultra Lounge didn't close for renovations or anything. Instead, 20 new WineStations were installed along orange walls in the ground-floor lounge.
The WineStations will pour 80 wines by the glass, allowing you three ways to get drunky-drunk: You can order "taste" portions at 1.5 oz. each, "half" glasses at 4 oz. and "full" glasses at 6 oz. Prices range from $1.76 for a taste of the 2007 Williamette Valley Riesling to a full glass of the 2004 Opus One for $28.47.
The taste option will allow oenophiles on a budget to sample some rare vintages for cheap, which is a departure for the luxury hotel, whose rooms run around $200 a night.
But don't get too plastered because the WineStations are self-serve and you don't want to embarrass yourself by making a mess when going up for your sixth round. To operate the interactive machines, you have to buy a SmartCard, a pre-paid debit card, from the staff and then simply press a button on the WineStation and swipe your card.
The wine-happy new Ultra Lounge and Wine Bar will be open Sunday to Wednesday from 1 p.m. to midnight, and Thursday to Saturday from 1 to 9 p.m. If a 9 p.m. closing time gives you a buzzkill, bring the party to Envy, the Gaslamp hotel's four-story bumpin' club, or the popular rooftop lounging area, both of which close at 2 a.m. Thursday to Saturday.
[Photo: Envy at Ivy's MySpace]
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