Last Call: Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Brix Pizza & Wine Bar
2747 S Hulen St, FW. 817-924-BRIX
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Hit Brix

Almost four years ago, restaurateur-chef-epicurean Daniele Puleo opened a ritzy Sicilian restaurant called Daniele Osteria in Dallas, and critics and diners have barely stopped genuflecting since. The joint’s veal, lamb, pasta, and salad dishes — and its extensive and very expensive wine list — instantly earned it the distinction of being considered one of North Texas’ finest purveyors of Italian fare.
But almost as soon as he had opened his restaurant, Puleo, a native of Palermo, Italy, had his eye on Fort Worth.
“I visited Fort Worth a lot, and I’d been following how the city was growing,” he said. He scouted several areas before finally locating a small space next to Snookie’s Bar & Grill on South Hulen Street. Nobody in the immediate vicinity specialized in the niche he was going for: pizza and wine.
At the end of January, Puleo opened his simple but sophisticated Brix Pizza & Wine Bar. The menu is (way) more modestly priced than Osteria’s and is concentrated almost exclusively on three things: panini sandwiches, salads, and, of course, gourmet thin-crust Sicilian pizza. “I don’t care what nationality you are,” Puleo said with a laugh. “People love pizza! It’s a genetic thing for the human race. And the marriage of pizza and wine is a wonderful thing.”
The wine list also is more modestly priced here. The top bottle at Daniele Osteria will run you $800. At Brix, the king is a Rombauer Merlot at $98: still steep, to be sure, but for many folks, well within special-occasion-splurging distance. And the prices fall precipitously from there. The Brix wine list features about 75 different labels, divided evenly between Californian and Italian wines as well as the red and the white grape. The pricier wines he sells by the bottle only, since oxidation kills certain flavors’ nuances just a couple of days after the cork is pulled. The more moderately priced vinos — about 20 of them — are sold by the bottle and the glass.
Puleo swears he’s no wine snob, although he has the pedigree — for years, he oversaw a 35,000-bottle wine cellar at Los Angeles’ famed Rex II Ristorante. Puleo prefers the younger, cheaper vintages, both for his Brix business and his own pleasure.
He also departs from his European brethren to stand with U.S. wine-drinkers. In general, he favors yields from California’s duly famous vineyard regions over pretty much everything else (and, yes, domestic wines also are, by and large, cheaper). Europeans, he said, expect — sometimes even demand — a higher acidic kick in their glass. It’s as much geographic as cultural: The soil in many European countries, especially in Italy, is volcanic and thus has a higher mineral content. That dirt produces stronger grapes on the vine, which translates to a more “aggressive” wine on the tongue.
Don’t misunderstand: He still wants customers to experience the world in a glass, though today’s depressed American dollar isn’t helping. The prices for imported European wines are as high as — ahem — a wine snob’s nose. Puleo is glad California can pick up the slack.
Here are some of Puleo’s wine recommendations for a couple of traditional pizza styles: For the simple — and original Neopolitan pizza — the margherita (tomato, basil, mozzarella), he said, “A young Californian Pinot Noir goes great with any tomato sauce.” For a four-cheese pie or slice (goat cheese, gorgonzola, mozzarella, parmigiano), he said, “Gorgonzola is a sharp cheese. A good Syrah [from Italy] is more aromatic and velvety, a better marriage to that cheese.”
Wherever you go, don’t feel embarrassed to admit you’re a newbie oenophile — or, God forbid, order a less expensive label. “I call the young wines ‘the happy wines’ because of how they make you feel,” Puleo said. “The more expensive wines, friends buy a bottle and share it without ordering any food. I call them ‘meditation wines,’ because they help you think.” – Jimmy Fowler

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