When Michelle Bonds and her husband, Chad Lewis, moved to Argentina for three months between jobs, their South American friends teased them. “Americans live to work,” she recalls them saying. “And we work to live.”
“They were always really enjoying their jobs. The people of Argentina made time for family and friends, and for going out and being together.”
After dreaming of opening her own wine bar since 2015, Bonds signed a lease in 2019 and will start serving customers on July 16, albeit under different circumstances than she envisioned some five years ago. Trova Wine + Market, in the Plaza at Preston Center, plans to operate at 50% capacity, to comply with Gov. Greg Abbott’s ruling to help curb the spread of the new coronavirus.
Trova is expected to be more restaurant than bar — an important distinction given that Abbott mandated that bars close temporarily. Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission spokesman Chris Porter confirms that businesses are asked to estimate their gross sales before they open, to determine whether they expect to make 51% or more of their revenue from alcohol sales (and are therefore under the governor’s shutdown).
The shop is part retail space, part bar — both wine and coffee — with a small menu of wine-friendly dishes like charcuterie boards, olives, popcorn and sandwiches.
“Overall, I just really wanted a happy place,” Bonds says. ”And I don’t know about you, but few things make me happier than a meat and cheese board and opening a bottle of wine.”
Bonds hired Cameron Cronin, a certified Level 2 sommelier, as wine director and general manager. Wine geeks and foodies likely know Cronin as the former sommelier at Sachet and Homewood restaurants. Cronin’s wine background is European-centric, and he was known at both restaurants for pouring funky and hard-to-find wines from small vineyards.
At Trova, Cronin says, he’ll still have some of those funky finds. But the shop will also sell bigger brand names.
“We want to have things that are familiar,” he says. His wine list is intended to “hit all the classics — all the things people are used to, balanced with the fun, funky and biodynamic.”
He sees Trova as a place where shoppers can pop in for a glass of wine, or where diners can stop before or after a meal for a drink and a cheese board. It will sell about 20 bottles by the glass and 150 wines total.
Cronin is especially excited about serving raclette, a melted cheese dish he calls “the French version of chips and queso.” Raclettes are also fun to pair with wine.
“I haven’t seen anywhere else in Dallas do raclettes,” he says. Bonds and Cronin hired Sophie Lynn as the shop’s executive chef.
Bonds named her wine bar Trova to play off of the Italian word meaning “to find.”
“I started thinking of various actions that might take place in my space,” Bonds says. “I want people to find what they’re looking for.”
