You won’t believe what’s pouring

You expect to find great wine lists at the “best” restaurants -- Spago or Valentino or Bastide. And you expect to find provocative wine lists at hip, newer places -- Sona or Grace or Table 8.

But these days I get my kicks turning up interesting wine lists in restaurants where you’d least expect them.

Angelenos are used to accompanying many of the foods we love -- from pizza to sushi to tamales -- with beer or iced tea. The restaurants that serve these foods tend not to have worthwhile wine lists, if they have them at all. Happily, a number of restaurants offer well-selected wines that are terrific with these ethnic and other favorites. There are even bargain lists at steakhouses and French restaurants.

The trick is knowing where to find them.

Just this week, I found a sushi bar that not only has a pretty amazing list but that’s also a hangout for wine folk. At Takao in Brentwood, owner and sushi chef Takao Izumida has put together a list to meet the demands of his wine-loving clientele. Many of them are Japanese, he says, and “they almost always drink red.” To that end, his list includes 10 red Bordeaux, mostly grand cru; a page of California Cabs (1998 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars for $70) and another of assorted other California reds.

Wine-and-sushi aficionados swear by older red Bordeaux with their fish, but the oldest on this list is 1995 -- a Clos du Marquis for $75. I chose instead a half-bottle of 2000 Calera Pinot Noir for $22, and I was surprised at how well it worked with both the yuzu-spiked halibut tiradito and the ankimo with caviar.

Izumida frequently cooks specific dishes for patrons drinking red wine. “A little seared,” he says. “That’s good for wine.” His favorite is toro with a sauce of soy, sesame oil and garlic; he sears it, dabs it with miso paste and wraps it in a red lettuce leaf with a little green onion.

Izumida prefers white wine with sushi and sashimi. His list includes eight Champagnes and sparkling wines (from a nonvintage Domaine Chandon Etoile for $65 to a 1989 Louis Roederer Cristal Rose for $380); Australian and California Chardonnays, including eight single-vineyard Kistlers; and a couple of white Burgundies and Sauvignon Blancs.

Halfway through my dinner, a couple took the two seats next to mine, bearing two bottles of their own: a 1937 Vieux Chateau Certan and, as a backup, a 1985 Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Grands Echezeaux. He, it turned out, is a wine collector, and she is Ann Colgin, proprietor and vintner at the esteemed Colgin Cellars. They’re regulars at Takao.

Malbec and mole

In any argument about where to find the best Oaxacan food in L.A., Guelaguetza will inevitably come up. But wherever you stand on the relative merits of its mole, this much is certain: Guelaguetza has the best wine list.

Amid decor that features plastic tablecloths, tattered travel posters and a blaring TV, finding a wine list at all feels completely incongruous. But there it is, and it’s pretty cool: 10 bottles that range from $9 to $14, five whites and five reds, with vintages listed. The choices are fun and interesting: a 2001 Yalumba “Y” Series Viognier from Barossa Valley, Australia; a 2000 Onix from Priorat, Spain, made from old-vine garnacha and carinena (Carignane).

Interesting wines aren’t the only surprise. There are even food matching notes: “Easy to quaff with our mixed botanas plate,” reads the entry for 2001 Vega Sindoa from Navarra, Spain. Although I hadn’t guessed that a fruity white would work with all the spicy grilled meats included on the plate, indeed the blend of viura and chardonnay set them off perfectly.

Each of the wine listings suggests such a pairing, and each makes sense. With its “well-balanced acidity,” the 2001 Palacio de Menade from Rueda, Spain, made mostly from verdejo grapes, is a “perfect match with big spicy-smoky flavors of our table salsa”; the 2001 Los Cardos Malbec from Argentina promises “Heaven with Mole Negro,” not the easiest match.

The list credits Nancy Zaslavsky, an authority on Mexican regional cuisine and author of “A Cook’s Tour of Mexico,” as its creator. When her friend Soledad Lopez opened the Palms restaurant four years ago, says Zaslavsky, “I suggested she put in a small wine list, and she looked at me like I was crazy.” Nevertheless, Zaslavsky convinced her. She enlisted her friend David Rosoff (now owner of Opaline), and they put together Guelaguetza’s first list. Since then she’s been redoing the list each year, looking for wines that are “young and drinkable.” And inexpensive. “Nobody’s going to buy a $40 bottle of wine when their dinner costs $4,” she says.

Philippe’s the Original is where you go for a classic French dip sandwich with a glass of legendary Silver Oak Cabernet.

The downtown institution, which celebrated its 95th anniversary on Monday, couldn’t be less pretentious: sawdust on the floor, communal wooden benches for dining, coleslaw served on cardboard plates. The way patrons line up at the counter to order, choosing the line that seems to be the shortest, looks more like parimutuel betting at Santa Anita than it does like dining.

Pick a line about two-thirds of the way into the room for the best view of the wines-by-the-glass list -- a board behind the counter posted just below the neon beer signs. Don’t even try to order by the name of the wine -- if you ask for, say “Domaine Drouhin Pinot Noir,” the server will probably scrunch up her face, squint up at the sign and say, “Oh, you mean No. 15?” No. 15, by the way, goes great with the pork French dip (at $9, costs twice as much), while No. 14, Silver Oak Cab, is the ideal companion to the lamb French dip.

Or you might try a Chateau Montelena or a Jordan Cab or, if you’re in the mood for white, a Chalone Chardonnay. Vintages aren’t listed, and it’s not the kind of place where you’re going to feel like asking; the server’s too busy slicing pickles. Three bottles are listed on a separate sign: Cabs from Neal Family and Plumpjack and a Merlot from Duckhorn. Each is $60.

Poured from a cruvinet-type dispenser, the two glasses I sampled on that visit were in excellent condition, not always the case in by-the-glass situations. The Silver Oak was served filled to the brim in one of those horrid little goblets; nevertheless, it was delicious and complemented magnificently the double-dip French dip lamb sandwich.

Every bottle: $10

San GENNARO CAFE in Brentwood is your run-of-the-mill family pizzeria, with a decent New York-style pie, old-fashioned cold antipasto and respectable meat lasagna. But I’m a regular because of the wine list, on which everything, including 17 Chiantis, is $10 a bottle. Really!

I learned this when I tried ordering a glass, which the waiter informed me would cost five bucks; he suggested a bottle for $10. I didn’t believe him and asked to see the list. Indeed, everything on it, from Chardonnays and Pinot Grigios to Merlots and Cabs, is 10 bucks.

Ignore the Chardonnays, White Zins and Merlots and head straight for the Chiantis. OK, so no vintages are mentioned, and they’re not the top producers. But there are quite a few very decent choices, all bargains at that price. A very drinkable Gabbiano, which retails for $12.99 at Wine.com. A Quarcetto, for which you’d pay $7.99 at Wine House. A Ruffino that sells for $11.49 at Wine Exchange.

The best bet is to have two or three in mind. I’ve found that almost no matter what I order, the waiter brings something else, claiming to be out of whatever was requested. So I’ve taken to giving him several choices, and usually he comes back with one of them. In any case, none of them has ever been less than decent, and all match admirably with the Village Special pizza.

Steakhouses are supposed to have wonderful wine lists, but those with great steaks and affordable wines are rather hard to come by.

Sunday night is “Wine Lovers’ Night” at Balboa, the steak house at the Grafton Hotel: All bottles of wine -- including half-bottles -- are half off the regular wine list price. How about a 1999 Chapoutier “La Bernardine” Chateauneuf-du-Pape for $41? Or a 1998 Robert Sinskey “Vineyard Reserve” Cab for $34.50?

If you’re willing to give up some of the scene in favor of even greater bargains, head east on Sunset to Echo Park, where Taix French Restaurant’s list has long been a not-so-well-kept secret: “600 wines all priced so low that you think they’re a misprint,” says the restaurant’s Web site. “I priced everything at $5 a bottle above retail,” proprietor Michael Taix quotes himself on the site as saying. “That way, I can discourage people from bringing in their own wine.”

Taix is an old-fashioned, canard a l’orange kind of place, with plush banquettes, faux-crystal chandeliers, oil still lifes on the walls, and a clientele that looks like it’s been coming since the restaurant opened in 1927.

But it does serve a 28-day aged entrecote ($22.95, including soup and salad) that begs for one of the grand cru Bordeaux that are some of the biggest bargains on the list (they’re also well represented, with 41 entries).

The 1995 Chateau Lynch Bages that Taix offers for $85 would cost you the same $85 if you bought it at 20-20 Wine Merchant in West L.A.; at Valentino, known for its reasonably priced list, it would be $150. There are also 52 California Cabs; the biggest bargain seems to be the 1994 Joseph Phelps Insignia for $125. (The menu says, “on premise only, 1 btl. limit.”) This wine is actually priced at less than retail: It’s $155 at 20-20. Some nice red Burgundies, a few Brunellos, a hatful of Rhones, a few token Australian and Spanish reds and assorted California reds round out the list. White wines come at the end -- 12 white Burgundies; a couple each of white Bordeaux, white Rhones, Loire Valleys and roses; a few Alsaces and German Rieslings.

Although you won’t find many discoveries here, it’s a great place to splurge on otherwise unaffordable classic wines.

The tables are set with those terrible tiny goblets, but the waiters get very excited if you order something worthy. They make a fuss about replacing the goblets with respectable big Bordeaux glasses (no, not Riedel or even Spiegelau), then ask for your patience while someone goes down to the cellar to fetch the wine.

When your reward is a 1989 Chateau Beychevelle for $90, it’s worth the wait.

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Secrets of the wine sleuth

Balboa Restaurant & Lounge, 8462 W. Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood; (323) 650-8383. Sunday is Wine Lover’s Night, with all wines half price.

Guelaguetza, 11127 Palms Blvd., Palms; (310) 837-1153.

A small, well-chosen list with bargain prices.

Philippe’s the Original, 1001 N. Alameda St., Los Angeles; (213) 628-3781. Eleven red and nine white top-flight wines by the glass, mostly from California.

San Gennaro Cafe, 140 S. Barrington Place, Los Angeles; (310) 476-9696. All wines (except the reserve list) are $10 per bottle.

Takao, 11656 San Vicente Blvd., Los Angeles; (310) 207-8636. A hangout for serious wine folk.

Taix French Restaurant, 1911 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles; (213) 484-1265. Focuses on well-known reds from Bordeaux, Burgundy and California at prices close to retail.