Stave Wine Bar & Market

Great space and good selections on the menu. Bought a bottle of wine and it was fabulous. Great service. Bartenders are really friendly!

Stave is a delight in a smaller mid-​western town like ours.
Stave serves great wines and an impressive selection of craft beers. You can even order some great appetizer style plates. I highly recommend the charcuterie. The cheese with mustard seeds in it is addictive.
Service is great. The staff has been educated well on their products. The interior is sleek, and woody. I love the smell. They also have a few counters at the front to purchase some select items.
Stave is perfect for happy hour, pre-​dinner, post-​dinner, or just about any time actually :) It’s a great social atmosphere and I really enjoy coming here.

Just a quick update now that Stave has been up and running for a year. The concerns I’d had have all been addressed: quasi-​monthly rotation of wines, a slightly more even distribution of whites and reds, and a great beer selection. Stave is really what Uptown needed. The owners are knowledgable and train their staff to be likewise. Disproportionately savvy place for the likes of BloNo.

Wish they had flights of wine. Everything seemed pricey but the quality was there. Enjoyable atmosphere and very clean. Would return.

This is a nice place to go if you want to have drinks and visit with friends. They have a good assortment of wine and craft beers. While you drink you can have limited snacks such as charcuterie, cheese, olives, etc. It is a little pricey, but the ambiance is good and it is a nice place to meet friends before or after dinner.

The wines are winners and the staff is knowledgeable, courteous, and kind. A great place to share a bottle, some cheese and charcuterie with friends… a friend, or that special someone. It truly is a place for almost everyone.
For beer drinkers, there are a few on tap and a few in bottles/​cans.
YUM!

Great cheese section! No complaints with the wines they have to offer. The sound system is pretty nice. I love seeing the older professional locals having a great time with their wine mouths in this mellow intimate setting. The owner is very knowledgeable on the products and clearly has a passion for the industry.

Stumbled upon this gem back in March when my mom was visiting me at school. Originally, we had intended on only having a glass or two of wine, but after reading through the list of cheeses and striking up a conversation with our server and the owner, we had to stay. This place is incredible, from the service to the wine.
I chose this location for my graduation dinner with my family, and no one felt disappointed. Although I have graduated and left town, I will be returning soon to visit this lovely wine bar (and purchase a couple bottles of wine and cheeses to bring home).

I went to Stave with a group of friends to celebrate finishing our senior year of college. We all really enjoy wine — often scavenging through Binny’s for the cheapest wine with the highest rating — so this was the perfect place to celebrate our achievements.
Entering Stave we were impressed with the simplistic modern décor and lighting. At the front of Stave is a modest little storefront where you can purchase wines and other assorted goods, and behind that is the wine bar and additional seating. There were not a lot of people there — it was 1 o’clock on a Tuesday, but I could easily imagine this place hopping on a Friday night. We quickly grabbed a table.
The service was prompt and our waiter (the owner?) was knowledgable and friendly. He was able to give us descriptions of each wine being offered, and we found the descriptions to be accurate when we received our drinks. When he found out we were graduating, he gave us each a complimentary half-​glass of wine :)
We didn’t order food since we were not hungry, but when I come again, I will be sure to check it out! Overall, a great experience!

Decided to try Stave for the first time. Nice little wine bar. My wife and I went with another couple and were pleasantly surprised. I’m not a wine drinker, but they had a very nice selection of beers. I tried Saison Belgian Farmhouse Ale, which was excellent. We then ordered an array of meat, cheeses, nuts and humus with crackers and pita bread. Very tasty and a nice change from the usual food offerings around Bloomington-​Normal. Also, our waitress, Cara, was an excellent server and was able to recommend and answer any questions we had on the beer and wines. Stave is a nice and cozy place to relax and have a drink and a bite to eat with friends. I know we will definitely be back.

Such an awesome place — BloNo you are sooo lucky! Stopped in mid afternoon on Saturday for some wine and nibbles and could barely pry ourselves away. Such friendly and interested staff from the owner helping us to choose a wine to Beth, the best server ever! She pointed us in the right direction for cheese, the young Parm was amazing and so was the Manchego. I loved the pig and fig meat selection which was a soft square of pork and figs cooked together. The bread was so flavorful and the right amount of crisp and chew to it. Also, they have a different type of almonds that come from Chicago that were sooooo good, way different than your usual almond. Definitely one of the nicest ways to spend an afternoon that I have found in a long time! Would love to see flights added to the menu sometime so I can try more than a couple types in one visit but either way, I will be putting plenty of miles on my car to get back to this gem of a wine bar!

Not bad. I am not a big wine drinker, nor do I care for the food-​like fare that accompanies wine drinking, but the atmosphere was nice and they do maintain a good selection of craft beers.

Surprisingly low key for how close to campus this is. This place has the most comfortable atmosphere in Uptown. They have a knowledgable staff (the menu isn’t too big but not small either). The cheeses are great-​sheep cheese was really good.
Stave is another uptown gem. Hopefully they are here for a long time. Great for groups or doing work. I could easily see small business meetings here

Visited the new wine and Charcuterie bar in Normal, IL. The atmosphere was classy and simple, the food mildly sophisticated and the wine was good. I think this place has great potential especially as they diversify their menu with more cheeses, dried meats and palate cleansers. My suggestion — the owners need two things to keep this place fresh and unique. #1 a sommelier on staff is a must (since when I asked to speak to the resident expert, they didn’t have one). #2 — owners should get a copy of Charcuterie by Michael Ruhlman. These two resources will take this place from good to great. I look forward to going back again in a couple weeks.

Update!
I stand by my earlier review — this place is seriously great and is absolutely worth a trip in to Uptown for. The one problem that keeps me from giving it five stars is that they are consistently running out of stuff — cheese, salame, and beer especially — so half the time you don’t get your first choice. Once they get a handle on stocking enough to accommodate their very deserved popularity, I will raise the rating. Great owners, kind and knowledgeable service. Now that I have asked for recommendations, I can say they are solid and always based on your preferences, not the person you are asking.
Original review (all still accurate):
I’ve been twice now and it is seriously promising. Once they have been open longer than a week, I will update my review.
Setting: Gorgeous interior, perfect for a drink with friends, a date before a movie at The Normal, or, since they have a wi-​fi, a place to get a little bit of work done (while you wait for someone or otherwise). Service: Two lovely servers/​bartenders, Marisa from Lucca, and Kat from Coffee Hound, who knew the menu as best as anyone could four days into opening. Food and wine; Ever-​changing wine and cheese list, and I think beer taps, too. Good hummus from The Rock down the street, but I haven’t tried anything beyond wine, cheese, and hummus yet. I knew what I wanted, so I didn’t take any recommendations, but next time I’ll ask for one just to see how they do.
In the short term, highly recommended! I am SO happy to see a business like this in Uptown.
Oh, they also do retail wine sales if you are looking for a special bottle or just something better to consume than what the CVS has if you are staying at the Marriott.

Really enjoyed selections of cheeses and cured meats. The Wild Boar sausage was excellent and the Gouda had a sweet crystallized finish. Wish the bartender had asked if we wanted another drink. We would have said yes

We had a small group come here recently and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. The wine and beers that we ordered were excellent. The owner and staff were very knowledgable and it was just a great experience.
Our server was very friendly and polite and we could not have had better service. We weren’t able to stay very long but we can’t wait to come back!
The meats and cheeses looked delicious although we didn’t try any that evening as we already had dinner plans elsewhere. I’m so glad that this place opened in Uptown Normal — I think it’s a perfect addition to the area. :)

This place is choice. If you don’t see it on the menu just ask. I talked to the owner a bit about our honeymoon to Australia & New Zealand and he had lived in Australia and actually had wine from a region we visited. Pretty damn cool. Nibbles are spot on. Great cheese selection, branch out people and pick a cheese you normally wouldn’t get. Five stars all the way. Bloomington/​Normal has been waiting for a place like this. Perfection.

Wine bars like Stave have begun to rival the local hangouts such as coffee shops and local bars. Stave offers a taste before you buy philosophy and they also have a light food menu.
Wine bars put a new spin on wine tasting. Stave seeks to remove the association of wine with upscale clientele and overwhelming wine lists, & replaces it with a more casual and relaxing atmosphere. They look to embrace the intellectual stimulation linked to wine and offer an alternative to the bar scene. It is less crowded than traditional bars and has a more intimate appeal.
Try it out!