There is a new hangout in Hillcrest for wine lovers that has a unique story. The place is called Cellar Hand and is run by Nick and Carmen Perr of Pali Winery. This new wine haven is located at the intersection of University and Normal Street, right under the iconic pride flag. The SceneSD was invited to the grand opening last month where we met with Nick Perr and his winemaker Aaron Walker. Pali winery has operated a tasting room in Little Italy since 2016 where San Diegans could enjoy their selection of Central Coast wines without having to drive all the way up there. Now, they have added fine dining to the equation at their new Hillcrest tasting room and restaurant.
Nick Perr and his wife Carmen
“Pali is my family’s winery, my parents started it in 2005 out of a personal passion for wine and they understood that California is a great place to make wine and they were introduced to a community of winemakers in Lompoc which is in the Santa Ynez Valley in Santa Barbara County,” offered Nick Perr. “And their favorite grape variety is Pinot Noir which is a very fickle grape variety that only wants to grow in select parts of the world and luckily the Santa Rita Hills which is the grape growing region adjacent to Lompoc is perfect for Pinot Noir, so that’s where they started!”
There are plenty of fine wines to choose from!
Perr says the whole idea of first the tasting room, and now the restaurant, is to give people the wine country experience without having to travel to do so. Especially since their area specializes in Pinot Noir. “As the business grew, we started opening up tasting rooms in an effort to bring the wine country experience to people as opposed to asking people to come up to wine country. We started in Santa Barbara in 2012 and then shortly after we opened in Little Italy in 2016 and that allowed people to come in and taste our wines in person and what we realized with that was that we love Pinot Noir which is the core focus of what we do, but people wanted a variety of different grapes so we started working with other vineyards across California. This included warmer climates so we could offer grapes with Bordeaux and Rhone varieties.
Winemaker Aaron Walker and Nick Perr
Like the Little Italy tasting room, Cellar Hand features premiere wines on tap, which is a new way of serving wine, which is proving to be both eco-friendly and sustainable. It was very unorthodox when they started, but the concept has now caught on and people don’t bat an eye anymore. Guests can come in to taste wines by the glass, sit for brunch, or enjoy full course meals depending on their schedule. The menu is heavily populated with fresh seafood, which has a very Baja flair to it. Kumai oysters and mussels in escabeche are favorite starters and artichoke raviolo and ham croquettes are popular plates. The wine list of course is spectacular and represents the central coast with Pinot Noir, Veltliner, Cabernet Franc and a few others. They even serve a Pinot Noir rosé, which many would consider completely blasphemous, but it smells and tastes beautiful. Whether you’re with the gang or a special date, Cellar Hand is the perfect place to hang out.
CellarHandHillcrest.com
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