Veritas Wine Bar

Veritas was one of my first Unilocal finds, and it was always the tiebreaker when people couldn’t agree on where to go in Dupont. I’m so disheartened to hear that Veritas is going to change into a whiskey bar in a few weeks. Not only are there plenty of whiskey/​bourbon/​scotch bars in the District already, but Veritas is truly the only wine bar in practically the whole DMV area. Sure, there are plenty of restaurants that feature wine, but none match the environment and selection of wines by the glass here. And what happened to the flights?
I love the intimacy and ambiance of this bar and I hope the new ownership keeps that same vibe. My friends and I were surprised that we snagged a table with no wait last Saturday, but I imagine it’s the time of year and the fact that Dupont is less popular than U street/​H Street on a Saturday night than it used to be.
Anyway, I’ve always had good service here (I swear, they have like, the least turnover of any bar in Dupont) and special props to our bartender Uri last weekend who took care of us. He was informative without being pretentious, attentive, and you could tell he’s a true oenophile.

The husband and i came here with a Living social. and after the bill came out, we realized we probably wouldn’t be able to afford it w/​o the living social… :sigh: The place is right next to Russia house, hidden off of Connecticut. It has a great wine den feel. There are tables right by the window that is bright, but most of the place is pretty dark. For our deal we got 2 flights, we got the malbec and french ones, 2 cheeses (we got both sheep), and one meat. i wish the bartender was nicer and more attentive in helping us pick the cheese? I was asking for something semi soft and unique and one of the cheese ended up tasting like cheddar. Either way, I think it’s a great start to a date night, the flights were paired perfectly with the cheese and meat. If i had the bank I’ll probably go here again. We came right at 5:00 pm when it opened and by 6:00 more than ½ of the place was already filled.

Very nice wine selection & atmosphere, but the service was pretty shoddy until we were able to move to another part of the bar. When we walked in, there were 2 tables open — 1 which stayed open the whole time we were there. Instead they shuffled us to the far end of the bar, squeezed in by the kitchen. It was noisy, not a lot of space & we sat in low uncomfortable chairs. Several new spots opened at a better part of the bar, but not once did they offer to move us and we ordered both food & wine. In fact, when I tried to ask one of the bartenders if we could move, he shushed us. We finally picked up everything & moved ourselves. A nicer more attentive bartender waited on us.
Next time I decide to go in, i won’t take those end seats when tables are open nor would I let that rude bartender wait on us!

Probably our favorite wine bar in DC. It’s small with personalized service and not too exuberant prices. The selection of cheese and meats is great as well.

Went to a Australian wine tasting that turn out to be a private event with us 4 of us on a Saturday afternoon. I’m so glad I did this event, it took a scotch tasting to appreciate scotch and I now have a major appreciation for Australian wine… banish yellow tail!!!
Jamie the GM/​Sommelier was nothing short of exceptional. He made the event fun, answered all the questions we had, and all us walked away learning much more than when we walked in. The wine was all great and the 3 cheese paring was amazingly tasty. We will be back for another tasting with Jamie for sure.

I write this review with the caveat that my girlfriend and I went with 2 friends to a ‘wine tasting class’, via Groupon, at lunchtime on a Saturday. Because of that there were only the four of us and Jaimie, the General Manager /​Sommelier (though the next class had 35 people taking part).
The wine bar itself seems very nice — cosy, good location, and unpretentious. I would guess maybe seats 35 to 45 people maximum.
Jamie seems very knowledgable about wine, but without any pretentiousness — we’ve done a wine tasting class before and for my liking they focused way too much on the ‘mechanics’ of tasting and not nearly enough on the wine itself. Jamie placed much more emphasis on how to choose a favorite wine and how to differentiate between different grapes /​regions etc… He seemed genuinely enthusiastic about wine, and was happy to talk about some of the cheaper wines a lot of people are used to, as well as some that people might not be so familiar with.
I noticed a couple of reviews talk about the food at Veritas being disappointing. For our visit, Jamie served a couple of different cheeses with some bread — a perfect accompaniment. Jamie admitted they have a small kitchen and generally just serve cheeses, charcuterie etc. To me this seems perfect for what they offer — wine! If you want dinner, go here first and then go for dinner later.
All in all I thoroughly enjoyed our visit and definitely plan to return.

The flights were a great end to our night and the recommendations by the server were great. Sitting outside was great in September! We didn’t eat here.

Finally came to this place. Even though I’ve lived in the neighborhood for a year I hadn’t been yet. Tip: They have half priced bottles Sunday and Mondays and $ 25 bottles during happy hour (5 – 7) other days. We were there on a Thursday and it was pretty quiet maybe a dozen people the entire time we were there. 5 stars for the service. We sat at the bar and the bartender, Cesear, was awesome. He was engaging chatting with us (but not overly so) and made great recommendations. He also let us try everything before we ordered. We also got a cheese plate which was fantastic. It’s in a basement and the décor is pretty cute, but it isn’t a huge place so I see how it could get really loud if there were a lot of people. Overall great neighborhood spot and I’ll definately be back.

Love it here! Great service. The wine and cheese was amazing. Will come back many times.

FINALLY. Which is funny that I have such mediocre feelings about a place I’ve been wanting to try for forever. The servers were ok, and the wine selection was a little lacking in my opinion. I asked for sancerre, none. My date asked if they carried a pretty common label, nope. Finally I asked for a white with a creamy finish. Dassit. There was one wine the server suggested. It was ok, not brilliant. After that I wanted to try something a little more complex. Again, received a wine that was tasty but not exactly what I asked for. The cheese, however was superb. Again, they were out of some things on the menu, and I was hoping for manchego which they aren’t currently carrying, but what we did order was awesome. The descriptions were spot on so we knew exactly what we were getting. My only caveat is that I wish they weren’t entirely a la carte. They should offer cheese tastings/​flights, so that if you order more than two or three, there is some difference in price. I would come here again out of convenience (the location is optimal for me), not because it was superior among DC wine bars.
More logistical things, it is basically an English basement so has a damp odor that other Unilocalers have referenced, but it’s not really distracting. They have cute décor that’s a bit of a cross between art deco and English pub. It’s trendy and nice. The lighting is really gentle which makes it good for dates. The music is a it loud though. The Unilocal tip on the app said that this is a place for 20-​somethings AND 30-​somethings which I found to be true, which is nice for variety but also means (at least when I went) that there were a nice mix of entitled douchebags including: two women who looked like they came from Lilith Fair smoking cigarettes IMMEDIATELY outside the door so that you had to walk through their cloud of smoke to enter the restaurant; some guy who interrupted my conversation with my date to ask for our menu before even asking his server or the bartender if they had any more; and a girl who knocked a chair over, looked at it, and kept walking right to (presumably) the ladies’ room so that someone else could pick it up for her. Some would say, «Duh, look were you were dining,» but I refuse to believe that because you spent more than a Jackson on a couple glasses of wine means you feel precluded from common decency,

I love wine, so when I saw a Groupon for a wine bar of course I purchased it. I met my girlfriend here around 7 on a weeknight, we found a table outside and it was warm so we were feeling pretty lucky.
A very nice waiter greeted us and we each ordered a glass of Cote du Rhone and to eat we ordered the trio of dips (hummus, olive tapenade and roasted red pepper feta) and an Irish cheese. The menu was different from the one online and that disappointed me. I was disappointed yet again when a basket of crackers was placed on our table-​I was really hoping to have a good baguette. The dips were served with sesame flat bread, basically more crackers, just a different kind. I ate a lot because I was hungry, but I can’t say I truly enjoyed everything I ate. The cheese was interesting, but not delicious. The feta dip was a little too salty, the hummus and tapenade were just OK. The wine was good, but most Cote du Rhone wines are.
I may visit again just for a glass of wine, but I won’t eat here again.

Good place to catch a wine flight and relax. Prices are what you would expect to pay in Dupont. Noise is not that bad, considering it’s only big enough for 50 folks.
Funny thing about this place – I have been there on a Saturday when there was a grand total of 3 patrons and another weekend when there’s a 30+ minute wait. You really can’t tell when this place will be packed, and they don’t take reservations. But the hostess is nice about moving things along, getting drinks for the folks waiting (no, not comp’d), and making sure that its first come, first served.
Will return (on hopefully a less crowded night).

It had been a while since I’d last stepped into Veritas Wine Bar, but with Groupon in hand; Carol W and I made the trek up to Dupont Circle on a Thursday night for some wine. We arrived during happy hour and grabbed two seats at the bar as the bar filled up rapidly. Veritas still offers happy hour priced bottles of select wines. We decided against having a bottle of wine and opted for a couple of flights of red wine to sample several wines that we’d likely never had or even seen before. I had the «Win, Place, Show» Pinot Noir flight ($ 25) and Carol had the «And Now for Something Completely Different» flight ($ 20) of obscure red wines upon the solid recommendation of the personable bartender. We also ordered some food, the prosciutto pressed sandwich ($ 11) and a paté ($ 5). The Win, Place, Show flight was aptly named although it may have been more accurately titled Show, Place, Win as my pinots improved in quality and taste with each successive glass, the 2010 Belle Glos «Las Aluturas» being the clear winner. The clear losers, though, were the food and our stomachs. The prosciutto pressed sandwich was an uninspired bite with a skimpy amount of prosciutto and mozzarella tucked between sliced ciabatta and grilled briefly in a Panini press. It was bland and quite dull. The paté of an undeterminable was even more disappointing as it was dense, dry, and surprisingly bland. While it may not have been past its use by date, it tasted as if it had been in the refrigerator for a while. Both food items were a poor value for the price even with a Groupon deal.
So, what have we learned? If you go to Veritas, skip the food and stick with the wine.

In a very rare moment of absentmindedness, I completely forgot when my Groupon for this wine bar expired and didn’t realize the problem until the week we had to use it. In an attempt to avoid the dozens of people I imagined had done the same, we decided to swing by on a Thursday night. What a mistake – this place was packed to the walls with a line out the door! We knew we didn’t have enough time to wait before our dance class that night, so we ended up deciding to go back on Saturday night expecting to wait on an even longer line.
To our (pleasant) surprise, the Saturday evening crowd was markedly smaller, and we only waited a few minutes until we got our seats at the bar. The place was still packed and buzzing, but it seemed like it would be a great place to go for a post-​work happy hour or for a catch-​up outing with friends. There isn’t a lot of space, but the décor is fitting and fun. They have some wine-​appropriate food on the menu – chocolate, cheese, charcuterie, dips, and paninis – but they were so pricey for so little food that we really couldn’t justify getting one this time around.
The wine menu is giant, in a good way; they have a vast selection of wines available by the bottle, a good number by the glass, and a very nice selection of flights. My boyfriend and I each got one flight for ourselves and then split a third. The wines were mostly of very good quality, and they certainly offered a good variety in the flights. My French white wine flight had the expected Sancerre and a Muscat but also featured a Pinot Auxerrois, which was a pleasant new find for me. My boyfriend had the Port flight and thought that they were pleasant but could have been a bit more interesting. We shared the Nectar of the Gods flight and found the dessert wines to be diverse and interesting.
I guess my biggest problem with Veritas is the price value. To be coughing up around $ 65 for basically three glasses of wine (since flights are 2 oz each and a glass is usually around 6 oz) is just a little over the top for a place that seems to be seeking to attracts young professionals in their 20s and 30s. Of course flights are a little more pricey than glasses, but in this case not by much. I’m really not sure that we could justify coming back very often considering that we’re paying as much for a few glasses of wine as we would elsewhere for a whole dinner.

2.5 stars
Veritas is OK just OK. Despite its small size, it’s intimate and boasts a decent wide selection of wines. Iwould recommend their little chocolates (if you are pairing it with a wine liek a cab or something) over their food but overall it’s eh. Yes, it’s tucked away in upper Dupont area by Russia House but there are other wine bars in DC.

Take my review as a grain of salt since I’m not really a partaker of wine bars.
Came here a few weeks back with a Groupon deal along with Carly C since we had some time to kill. I’m next to clueless when it comes to wine but I don’t mind getting a credit towards some alcohol.
Veritas is a small basement located on the far end of Dupont right off Florida Ave, being close to Adams Morgan and not a far walk to the U st corridor.
Walking in, Veritas had a weird smell, almost like a locker room or a pool. At first I was wondering if it was someone in there with really bad BO but it was just the place itself. Not a smell you want in a wine bar. We were also kind of hoping to sit where we wanted but were «pushed» by the bartender (who was sweating profusely) to sit at the bar. Not that we really minded but kind of annoying.
Prices were somewhat reasonable for the flights around $ 15-​$ 18 for three glasses of reds (DC prices), but I was surprised at how expensive the cuts of cheese were considering how TINY the portions were. $ 4 for a piece of cheese the size of four quarters stacked on top of each other. Really?
I will be back here one more time since I have a Groupon for this place, but I’d much rather go elsewhere if I felt like sitting around drinking wine. I’ll probably take Venu’s advice and head to Cork or Vinoteca instead.

This place is OK but I wouldn’t go out of my way to go back.
We had a Groupon and forgot to use it until it was about to expire, so there was a serious wait. They asked us if we would share a booth with another couple, but luckily didn’t force the issue when we said no.
We got a cheese plate and a few chocolates and were disappointed with how small everything was. The wine flights we got were decent but also not worth the price. I don’t think we’ll be back.

I was pretty bummed out by this DC hot spot. The service was pretty sub-​par, and the prices are a bit steep. I ended up having to walk up to the host after 15 minutes and get our own menus for the table.
Furthermore, the space does not absorb sound very well, so it was hard to hear my three friends even though we were sitting against a wall.
Feels like a cellar, but I feel like a wine bar should have more ambiance and character.

Romannnttiiiccc!
Too bad I was going there with my roomie. BUMMER. This is a great place to take a person you’ve only recently begun dating — you know, it’s too dark to read the menu, so if you’re having a bad hair day, the candlelit lighting will only make your frizz look enchanting. It can be loud, so your date will have to lean closer to you. And the music isn’t awful soft jazz that’s always seems prevalent in places like this.
I got the «War of the Rosés» flight (cle-​ver!) which were pretty big glasses, and at $ 16 for the flight, pretty comparable prices to other wine bars in town. We also split the dip sampler which was pretty pricey at $ 20, but at least there was a lot of dip. The hummus and the olive tapenade were nice, though my favorite was the feta and red pepper dip. There were a lot of tasty sesame flatbread served with it, and they even brought more when we had more dip left.
The servers were super nice. Since the dip was so expensive (as was a lot of the rest of the food), I think next time I head here I will try to eat first and just stick to wine.

Veritas is a very pleasant place to spend an evening, but it has several drawbacks.
I’ll start with the overwhelming positive, the wine. We got a bunch of different flights, and there wasn’t a bad one among them. Everyone was really happy. This was also the case during a previous visit. I also like how quiet it is. Even when the place was packed, my friends and I still didn’t have to yell over each other. But…
The food is obscenely overpriced. I’m talking $ 20 for dip and crackers!
The lights hanging over the tables are awkwardly placed so it’s either too dark or they’re in your face, and I still had a headache the following day from them.
The tables are too narrow for the chairs, and they only have one table that will comfortably seat more than four people. Even when there were only three of us at the table, we all kept accidentally and awkwardly touching each other’s knees. The tables are also too narrow for four people to get wine flights and also be able to reach the food in the middle or gesticulate while telling stories. We actually felt stressed out by having to basically play a game of «Operation» around our glasses in order to get to the crackers and dip without hitting any of the glasses on the side. And forget about asking for water until you’ve finished half your drinks, because there won’t be room on the table for the glass. I normally wouldn’t be so nitpicky about these types of things, but this is clearly a place that tried to put a lot of thought into its ambiance.
Even though my review reads like a laundry list of reasons this place annoys me, I’ve had a great time and enjoyed my wine every time I’ve gone, so I’ll probably be back.

I’m obsessed with the Nectar of the Gods dessert flight. I want to order it again and again. The ice wine and tokaji of the trio go down way too easily, and even the sauternes has a pleasing finish despite a harsh nose.
I feel relaxed by the dark interior, laid back bartenders, and intimate vibe of the place. It’s sexy without intimidation, and makes you smile even if you’re coming off a rough week. Compared to the other wine bars in the city, Veritas feels like coming home to a surprise party.
The chocolate truffle selection is different from the one they list online, but all the ones I tried that night ranged from okay to divine. I appreciated the experience of the Montezuma, and the buttery filling of the pistachio was almost uncomfortably decadent. The Earl Grey was by far my favorite of the three, though I certainly enjoyed the sultry nibbles of the caramel and modified classic truffles.
On my return visit that evening, I opted for the prosciutto panini after sampling a bite of Julia’s cheese panini. Pretty middle-​of-​the-​road grub. The Tillamook cheddar in her sandwich made me crave a bowl of tomato soup instead of the accompanying gherkins, olives, artichoke, and sundried tomatoes that came with each. My willingness to dine on jarred food while out on the town is limited. If they added a real food menu with the same level of finesse evident in everything else, I see this hitting an easy five stars in my book.