Sometimes you find really good places – restaurants or other – in really poor locations. AOC Bar à Vin is one of those. Hidden in a very narrow alley, almost behind the rubbish bins, between two busy shopping streets at day time, but almost abandoned at night. Nevertheless, this is a very good wine address in Avignon. It is a really, really simple wine bar, but in its way very nice.
They have a good, albeit not enormous, selection of wines and about a dozen by the glass of each colour. It is also a wine shop so you pick what you want from the shop and they add a small corkage.
They have a minuscule kitchen behind the bar where they can produce surprisingly delicious food: charcuteries and cheese, cote de boeuf, sardines in a tin (a classic), salads, duck’s breast with mashed potatoes…
They do have some quirks: you are not allowed to eat outside (only drink), it is often very crowded, and sometimes it is difficult to get the attention of the staff when they are busy.
But if you are looking for good wine and a wine bar / restaurant that is as simple as they get, this is the place
to go. And it is just a few minutes walk from the Place de l’Horloge towards Place de Pie. (They have open a second restaurant in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon on Place Victor Basch, but we have not been there.)
AOC, vins, boissons, assiettes, 5 rue Trémoulet, 84000 Avignon, 04 90 25 21 04
