The Frasca Food and Wine Team Is Opening a Wine Bar in LoDo

Bobby Stuckey and the Frasca, Inc. team are having a great month. Not only did Frasca Food and Wine, their flagship Boulder restaurant, win a James Beard Award for Outstanding Service on May 6, but this week they announced that they’re opening something new come fall: Sunday Vinyl, a European-style wine bar on the platform at Union Station, across the alley from Tavernetta.

Sunday Vinyl has been in the works for a couple of years; research trips to Copenhagen, Paris, Rome, and London took place last year and, about six months ago, the ideal location became available when Local(ish) Market closed.

The name Sunday Vinyl comes from Stuckey’s tradition of drinking wine and listening to vinyl with his wife, Danette, as a way to wind down on his one day off each week. (You can follow the Stuckeys’ Sunday evening adventures on Instagram at @bobbystuckeyms.) And just like those music-and-wine sessions, Sunday Vinyl “is going to be intimate, and vibe-y,” says Stuckey, “and super European.”

Compared to the refined elegance of both Frasca and its Denver sister restaurant, Tavernetta, Sunday Vinyl will have more of an edge, with louder music and sexy design touches from local firm Semple Brown Design. “We want people to eat and drink the experience through all of their senses,” says partner Peter Hoglund, “from the look to the sounds to the flavors.”

The 65-seat space will be darker than other Frasca, Inc. spots, too, with low library and pendant lighting, arched charcoal banquettes, a 17-seat horseshoe-shaped Carrara marble bar, blush and gold tones, and unobstructed windows looking out onto the train platform.

Stuckey intends to stock Sunday Vinyl’s drink list with “as much wine as I can cram in there,” with 1,500 bottles prominently featured on a two-tiered wine wall across from the bar. Carlin Karr is the wine director, who, working with lead sommelier Clara Klein, will shepherd the global wine list, which you can explore through about 20 wines by the glass. “The list will have fun French wines, lighter bottles from new Spanish producers,” says Karr, “and, in general, cool and off-the-beaten-path selections from the Old and New Worlds.”

The food menu will come from chef de cuisine Charlie Brooks, a Gramercy Tavern alum who has been cooking at Tavernetta since last summer. There’s more to come on specific dishes, but the goal is to match small plates and just a few entrées each night with the wines and the tunes.

Last but not least, the music: It’s all vinyl, all the time. Vinyl Me, Please is helping the team curate the wine bar’s record collection, and while there will be at least one night each week when guests get a chance to play DJ, on most nights at Sunday Vinyl, Stuckey will choose the playlist…just like he does at home on Sundays.

This fall, Sunday Vinyl will be open from 3 p.m. through at least 11 p.m. daily. 1803 Sixteenth St.