(2 out of 5 hot dogs)

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Vero
1004 2nd Avenue (53rd and 54th)
1483 2nd Avenue (77th and 78th)
Time: All day Monday
Price: Free panini with any drink, $11ish

Wine Bar: a bar that serves wine. Sounds like somewhere I would want to be. But to tell the truth, I would much rather drink a $3 bottle of Trader Joe’s wine, sprawled out watching last week’s ‘Intervention’ on DVR than play $12 for a glass at a stuffy Upper East Side establishment. Basically, you’re going to have to kick it up a notch if you want to get me into a wine bar. Enter ‘Free Food.’ At Vero on Mondays, you get a complimentary panini. I chose the Spicy Passion Fruit Margarita, made with jalapeno-infused house tequila. I ignored both the ‘Spicy’ on the menu, and the waitress’ warning, and ended up complaining about how spicy it was the whole time. However, there was an extensive list of wines, sangrias and martinis that I am sure I would have enjoyed way more. I ordered the spinach panini with olives, fontina and cumin aioli. The flavors were fine, but it was pretty small and unsatisfying. And there is a strictly enforced ‘one panini per customer’ rule, so don’t get any fancy ideas. All in all, I’d say if you’re in search of a wine bar on a Monday evening, knock yourself out with that free panini. But as for me, I’ll stick with my two-buck chuck.