Stars opened in December at 139 East 12th Street with an almost radical commitment to restraint. Twelve seats circle a hand-finished zinc bar. No reservations. No host stand. No pretense. From the team behind Claud and Penny comes something entirely different—a space that trusts wine to carry the room and doesn't need much else.
The wine list exceeds 1,000 bottles, but what matters more than the number is the philosophy: by-the-glass pours start at $11 and cap under $20, with 88 bottles priced below $88. This isn't gatekeeping dressed up as accessibility. It's an actual rejection of the nonsense that makes wine bars feel like you need permission to be there. You walk in, you sit, you drink what interests you without calculating whether you've ordered correctly.
The snack menu—deviled eggs, griddled shrimp toast with mandolined lemon and aioli on focaccia, veggies with chorizo, potato frico—exists to accompany rather than distract. These are real things: the shrimp toast carries enough weight to matter, the deviled eggs have actual flavor, nothing is plated to perform. This is support staff, not the show.
What's genuinely rare about Stars is the atmosphere it's managed to create: just enough buzz to feel energetic, yet intimate enough for a genuine conversation. On a Monday—the day the bar opens—it becomes something more valuable than trendy: a low-pressure perch for easing into the week alone, or with one person who actually wants to talk. Walk in early and claim a seat before the bar fills.