Battery Park Wine Bar, Cleveland

Typically, when wine lovers try to find a new wine bar, they look for a cozy hole-in-the wall filled with gauzy curtains and illuminated by candles. When they're looking for the Battery Park Wine Bar, though, they just have to glance up at the towering smokestack studded with enormous red letters. Owner Mike Graley wanted to create a wine bar that would appeal to a beer drinker, according to an article in Cleveland Magazine, that also complemented the venue's "hip vibe and smart wine list of familiar favorites." Bartenders and servers regale guests with descriptions of their more than 100 wines available by the bottle and rotating selection of more than 25 wines by the glass. The kitchen crafts small plates designed to complement the fermented flavors with braised octopus and spinach salads, flatbreads spread with pumpkin-seed pesto, and thoughtfully composed charcuterie boards.

The rehabilitated space creates a modern industrial aesthetic by merging the old and the new. Exposed brick, high ceilings, and a massive garage door allude to the building's past, and geometric light fixtures hang between the gleaming ductwork above high-top tables. Guests can enjoy a drink at the polished wooden bar, stop in to pick up an impressive bottle before a house party, or reenact lessons from Donald Duck in Mathmagic Land at the pool table.