Pacific Palisades Lands a Cozy New Wine Bar by Cinque Terre West

Mona Holmes is a reporter for Eater Los Angeles and a regular contributor to KCRW radio. She has covered restaurants, dining, and food culture since 2016. In 2022, the James Beard Foundation nominated her for a Jonathan Gold Local Voice Award.

Tucked into the Gardens At Palisades is a new wine bar by Cinque Terre West, full of Italian and Californian wines, salted meats, cheeses, and small bites. Enoteca 5 sits directly next door to the one year old restaurant and opens on August 31.

Enoteca 5 and Cinque Terre West owners Marlo Vinzoni and chef Gianbattista “Gianba” Vinzoni took over the adjacent Pacific Palisades space earlier this year. The wife and husband team transformed the former retail space into an intimate outdoor and indoor area in which to savor wine flights, glasses, or bottles paired with options like speck, prosciutto, cured pork belly cut on a classic Italian meat slicer. Also available are cheese from California and Spain with Humboldt Fog, or the semi-hard goat milk Caña de Cabra cheese.

It’s an easy-to-savor menu by design, with breaded fried olives, pizza, meatballs, and fritto misto served Italian Riviera-style, the same region where Gianba grew up. And if you want a dish from Cinque Terre, that’s perfectly fine. (But note: the wine bar menu isn’t available to Cinque Terre customers.)

Onto the wine list. The Vinzonis enlisted the knowledge of sommelier Antonino Scaglione, and the 100 variety collection keeps some rare finds including Sciacchetra, a limited-run dessert wine that hails from the Cinque Terre region. There are also bottles from Tuscany and a woman-run winery in Piedmonte, while the California selections hail from Alpha Omega, Inglenook, Chalone Vineyard. Also available is a wine club membership that’ll offer a secret wine list available to members only. If not in the mood for wine, the Vinzonis have Umbrian beer.

According to Gianba, Enoteca 5 is inspired by the wine bars throughout his native Italy. It is truly a hideaway, so be on the lookout for the main Palisades Village entry, and then walk toward Cinque Terre West and stay to the left. Hours are Tuesday through Thursday from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m., and Sunday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.