Downtown’s Favorite Wine Bar Gets a Fenway Sibling Today

An intimate Downtown Crossing wine bar with a nautical vibe adds a Fenway counterpart this week. Nathálie (styled as nathálie) opens Friday, July 27, in the new Pierce building (186 Brookline Ave., Boston), joining its older sibling Haley Henry (styled as haley.henry) in serving fine wines and snacks.

Founder Haley Fortier announced plans for Nathálie in January of this year (also announcing the promotion of general manager Kristie Weiss to managing partner), and construction began shortly thereafter. Fortier, Weiss, and the Haley Henry team worked with Wolf in Sheep Design for Nathálie, which features wood bar tops, black tile, industrial grays and blues, and exposed lightbulbs. There’s a combination of counter, bar, and table seating, and eventually there will be outdoor seating as well.

“Where haley.henry is a very masculine, tinned fish/wine bar, Nathálie will be the dynamic, invigorating daughter that brings a whole new twist to Fenway,” Fortier said in the January announcement.

Nathálie’s by-the-glass wines are all from female wine producers, and like at Haley Henry, the Nathálie team will open any bottle of wine if diners commit to at least two glasses of it. It’s a great way to try unique wines that might be available by the bottle only — and at a prohibitive price — at other venues.

Haley Henry executive chef David Cavilla is now overseeing the food at both spots, with Haley Henry’s executive sous chef Liam Cooper getting promoted there and newly hired chef Kunal Datta handling the day-to-day at Nathálie.

Here’s the opening menu at Nathálie:

• Corn Nuts
• Olives
• House mezze plate
• Corn bisque — pimenton, Jonah crab, herbs
• Charred squash — shrimp, chicken kofta, basil, peanuts
• Stuffed heirloom tomato — lamb, gorgonzola, balsamic
• Wasik’s cheese plate — fig, raw honey, ficelle
• Garden beans — fava skordalia, tomatillo, green onion
• Greens — summer fruit, cotija, mustard vinaigrette

Nathálie opens for its first service on Friday at 3 p.m. and will be open seven nights a week. The team might add weekend lunch hours in the future.

• Nathálie Wine Bar Opens Friday in the Fenway [BM]
• Nathálie Wine Bar [Official Site]
• Haley.Henry Team to Open New Wine Bar in Fenway [EBOS]