I’m sure you’ve all asked yourself recently: Where can I buy a piece of art from an artist from a community near Gaza, pick up some avocados from a farm in northern Israel, and have a nice glass of Israeli wine – all at the same time?
The answer is Yayin Bakerem in Tel Aviv, a wine store and wine bar in the trendy Nahalat Binyamin pedestrian area. I arrived at 6:30 p.m., and about half of the outdoor tables were taken, but by the time I left two hours later, there was a line waiting for my table.
Before we go any further, full disclosure. Owner Ilan Amir is in Miluim (IDF Reserves) with my son in a paratrooper unit that has been up north since the war began, mostly on the actual border. He said they closed the wine bar for the first month of the war but then reopened and intentionally hired new staff who had been evacuated from their homes.
The art is also by evacuee artists, and Ilan says he’s just offering a space for them to sell. The customers pay the artists directly. Same with the avocados. Another member of the reserve unit is from a moshav in the north that has also been evacuated. His father went and picked the avocados so they wouldn’t rot, and Ilan offered him a space to sell them.
One more important note: The wine bar’s kitchen is not kosher, although most of the dishes are vegetarian. They are closed on Friday nights but open on Shabbat day.
Enjoying the wine in Tel Aviv
Ilan opened the wine bar as a wine store during Corona. He worked as a wine importer, supplying restaurants with wine. When all of the restaurants shut down during Corona and he was stuck with a lot of very good wine, he opened his wine store and then expanded it into a wine bar.
What’s especially nice about Yayin Bakerem is that diners are encouraged to buy a bottle at wine shop prices, and he charges only a 15-shekel corkage fee per person to open the wine and provide glasses. And the corkage fee only applies to the first bottle, so my Ladies Who Drink would do just fine here.
“It enables people to have the experience of drinking wine but at wine shop prices,” Amir told the Post.
He also sees the wine bar as a way to promote Israeli wine. There are 400 wineries in Israel, he says, and he offers wines from dozens of boutique wineries in Israel, both kosher and non-kosher.
I met my friend Hilary, who lives in New York and had come to Israel for two weeks to volunteer planting scallions on a farm near Netanya. She’s worked in restaurants for many years and is most assuredly a “wine person” (one of the highest compliments I can bestow, by the way).
She prefers white, and I prefer red, so we decided to order by the glass rather than sharing a bottle. Along with planting scallions, she came on a personal mission to taste as many Israeli wines as possible. This was a good place, as they open different bottles to serve by the glass each day. Manager Hadar Shelley asked us each about our preferences and what we usually drink.
She is a fan of Sauvignon Blanc, so the manager suggested she try the Sphera Sauvignon Blanc. Sphera is a winery in the Judean Hills where talented winemaker Doron Rav Hon makes some of Israel’s best white wines. It was delicious.
She then moved on to a glass of Sauvignon/Semillon from the Gito winery (NIS 52), a boutique winery started in the home of winemaker Malkiel Hadari in Hod Hasharon. I told Hadar to surprise me with an Israeli red, and he came up with one of my favorite Israeli wineries, Margalit Winery. The glass of Paradigma 2019 (NIS 55) was a GSM blend, meaning Grenache-Syrah-Mourvedre, a common blend in France’s Rhone Valley. It was balanced, fruit-forward, and elegant.
The wine bar has a limited food menu. Hilary is celiac, so she had the artichoke salad (NIS 50) with arugala, labane, and almonds. I tried the Buche bruschetta (NIS 52), made with melted cheese on bread and homemade jalapeno jam. It was a perfect, light bite.
Ilan says they have established a clientele of repeat customers as well as offering a little respite to soldiers and reservists. Most of the customers are young, hip Tel Avivians, many with small dogs in tow. The people at the table on one side of us were speaking English; on the other side, Spanish. It seems like the kind of place where you could strike up a conversation with other diners and even ask for a taste of the Spanish tempranillo that the waiter just opened.
So next time you’re in Tel Aviv and are looking for a place to relax in the late afternoon or evening, head over to Yayin Bakerem, ask them what they recommend, and just relax.
- Yayin Bakerem
- Nahalat Binyamin 29
- Hours: Sunday-Saturday, 7 a.m. - 11 p.m. (Closes an hour before Shabbat on Friday)
- Kosher: No
- The writer was a guest of the wine bar.