If you didn’t know JP Wine Bar had gone out of business, you couldn’t tell by walking in the door of the restaurant that now inhabits its former space.  The new Tannin Wine Bar was smart to leave the interior as it was–the urban decor is trendy yet comfortable, and it has a variety of seating areas depending on what suits your fancy on any given evening. Chef Brian Aaron is also a holdover from JP and, judging from my first meal there since the restaurant changed hands, that’s a good thing as well. 

We went for an early dinner before seeing a play at the Music Hall. We neglected to inform our waiter of that fact when we sat down, but once we mentioned our time constraint, he was quick to tell the kitchen and our meal was perfectly timed.

The menu has fewer small plates than JP did, but more sandwiches and salads if you’d rather not have a full entree.Wine is still king here, with a large wine list, though flights are not featured as prominently as they were at JP. The wine by the glass list is lengthy, though not as exciting as I would have expected, and I thought the pours were a bit skimpy for the cost.

We opted for the 4 course tasting menu for a very reasonable $38, as well as a Portobello sandwich on a croissant.  The sandwich made for a nice vegetarian option, but the hand cut French fries that accompanied it were outstanding.

The tasting menu offers several options for each course. We started with grilled Beau Solais oyster mushrooms on a pool of spicy sauce, a fabulous dish that could only have been improved if served with bread or a roll. We were sorry to have to leave any of the sauce, but we didn’t think it would be good form to lick the plate.

The next course offered a number of salad options, as well as steak tartare, crab dip, pork shoulder and mussels. We opted for the grilled romaine with grilled bread and a creamy Caesar dressing. I love the texture of grilled lettuce–it adds a charred flavor to what is traditionally not an exciting salad, and serving grilled bread instead of croutons was a nice riff.

The third course was my favorite. If I see seared Ahi tuna with wasabi mashed potatoes on the menu, I rarely fail to order it. It’s one of my favorite combinations, and the chef absolutely nailed it. It was as fine a tuna dish as our town has to offer right now.

The dessert wasn’t too shabby, either. It was hard to decide between the fudge stuffed peanut butter cookie, but it’s hard for me to resist a chocolate molten cake with Kaluha ice cream…so I didn’t. It may not have matched the one I still dream about from when JP Wine Bar first opened, but I still wrestled my husband for the last bite.

The tasting menu is a lovely way to sample a number of dishes, and the portions are smaller so it’s no problem to eat four courses and not be stuffed.

Though Tannin Wine Bar has been open for more than a month, they just had their grand opening on May 6. I’m glad the space is open and humming again.