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Champagne lovers, a new wine bar is coming to Los Gatos – and it’s completely focused on the bubbly beverage.
Winston Champagne Bar will offer hard-to-find, unique Champagnes – you won’t find any Moët or prosecco here. Expected to open in May, Winston is located in former plant shop Leafy, a small 760-square-foot space along N. Santa Cruz Avenue. For Los Gatos resident Melanie Bauer, Winston is a way to share her lifelong love of Champagne with the community.
“I essentially grew up with my family drinking Champagne pretty much to celebrate any occasion, big or small, or just because it was Tuesday,” Bauer said. “The popping of the cork, and then hearing when the Champagne hits the glass, there’s this little hissy sound of the foam – all these things were just always so fun for us.”
The name is an homage to Winston Churchill, who had quite a penchant for Champagne after forming a strong friendship with the Pol Roger family, a prominent Champagne producer since 1849. Churchill’s love of Champagne is memorialized in Pol Roger’s Sir Winson Churchill Cuvee, first offered in 1984.
“(Churchill) drank two bottles a day until the day he died,” Bauer said. “Naming the Champagne bar ‘Winston,’ it’s a classic charm, in a way, but we’re going to make it feel modern and different.”
Bauer described her future Champagne bar, which will have a maximum capacity of about 21 people, as “cozy and quaint,” “moody but modern,” as well as having somewhat of “a speakeasy vibe.” She intends it to be a space for both Champagne novices and experts, and a place for both socialization and solo relaxation.
“I want to be able to offer a range of Champagnes that are super new to folks and that they just haven’t tried before, but that are so exciting and so good, but we just don’t know because we’re not exposed to them, we can’t buy them anywhere,” Bauer said. “So that truly is the goal, is to bring some of those really special and rare and unique grower producers to Winston.”
While the focus of the business will be to highlight true Champagnes, Winston will also offer a handful of other wines and some artisanal craft beer. Food options include light bites, like cheese and charcuterie plates, as well as caviar and an assortment of truffle-flavored items, like chips, grilled cheese sandwiches and French fries.
“I personally love either a good French fry or grilled cheese sandwich with sparkling wine. To me, that’s such a beautiful combination,” Bauer said.
Winston will be Bauer’s debut in the food and beverage industry, with the majority of her career spent as a manager of benefits at Meta and LinkedIn. She grew up in Germany, temporarily moving to the Bay Area as a teenager with her family for her dad’s work.
“My dad always says that I was the one that kept saying, ‘I want to go back to America. I want to go back to America,’” Bauer said.
And she did. Another work opportunity returned the family back to the Bay Area, and Bauer has lived here ever since, working in tech but dreaming of opening her own Champagne bar.
“In the back of my head, I would always say, ‘How great would it be to have a little Champagne bar, just a small spot where people can come try all these beautiful Champagnes that most people haven’t even been exposed to?’” she said.
She had been contemplating quitting her job to pursue her dream for years, but it wasn’t until her mom died that she decided she couldn’t wait any longer.
“That was honestly the trigger for me to say, ‘Life is too short. I can’t sit here and just wait any longer and think about it. I just need to do it. I just need to jump,’” Bauer said.
Bauer hopes to offer Champagne flights at Winston, institute a Champagne club membership and host special tasting events.
“The goal for me is for it to be a place where you can come and celebrate life,” she said. “I want this to be a place where you can come after work, take a load off, just enjoy the ambiance and a nice glass of bubbles, meet up with your friends, and also just a place of connection.”
She emphasized that she doesn’t want Winston to be pretentious.
“I don’t want people to come in and feel scared or intimidated by (Winston),” Bauer said. “I want people to come and be like, ‘What is this bubbly beverage? Tell me more about it. Why is it so expensive? What makes it so special?’ I want this to be completely, absolutely educational and like, ‘Let me explore.’ … I really hope that a lot of people that aren’t that familiar with it will come and maybe just fall in love with it the way that I did, and just find something new that they really like.”
Winston Champagne Bar, 3 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos; Instagram: @winstonchampagnebar.
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