I’ve been thinking  about Cafe Caturra recently and writing about it. There is so much I love about that place: the patio, the dual fireplaces, the coffee roasting right in the store.  Plus I love that you can buy half glasses of wine, and I love the fact that you can sample and sample wine until you find just the right wine for you, and discuss the wine with the somewhat knowledgable staff.  

But, they’ve got alot of competition in the neighborhood, with several similar concept wine bars opening in the next few weeks. We published a story about the Village’s Magnolia Wine Bistro and also you may have noticed a Near West End location of the very popular Barrel Theif Wine Shop & Cafe with almost an identical concept.  Cafe Catturra’s advantage is that it is already open and already popular. Plus it has an huge affluent customer base withing walking distance (always a plus when you are drinking wine!).

But getting back to my personal experience there. I felt like the signature salad that I ordered was good but overpriced and the lettuce was a bit tough.  If I remember correctly, the salad was $8.95 and the wine was $8 a glass. By the time you add in tax and a tip well you are talking over $20. Which might all be fine and dandy if the lettuce was tender and the wine was to die for. But apparently I have very simple taste and cannot appreciate wine as well as some can.  I stood at Cafe Caturra’s counter sampling wine after wine  trying to find one that I liked as much as Trader Joe’s Charles Shaw Shiraz, or 3 Buck Chuck.  I couldn’t do it.