Pacific Grove’s Passionfish swims on, a haven for wine lovers

There was something crazy in the air when Cindy and Ted Walters opened their restaurant Passionfish, with a wine list out of the fever dreams of wine nerds.

Here was a small seafood bistro in the quaint town of Pacific Grove, selling bottles of wine for about what they’d cost on a store shelf — essentially zero markup from retail?

“We’re going to do it for a year,” Cindy told her husband, Ted, when they opened in 1997.

Her estimate was off. Seventeen years later, the wine list at Passionfish has grown from 50 choices to about 400 — a roster of some of the most desired wines from around the world, along with enough curiosities to make a Mission hipster green with envy.

Yes, there is a 2008 Chateau Rayas for $298 (if you could find a bottle to buy, it would be about $280) and Sine Qua Non’s Five Shooter for $291 (exactly its current retail price) and Jean-Marc Roulot’s 2010 Meursault Boucheres for $196 (closer to $300 on a shelf).

But there’s also a “love page,” as the Passionfish staff call their deep dives, for six versions of Vermentino, the savory white variety from Italy. That includes one made by the Walters’ daughter, Megan Glaab, who owns Ryme Cellars in Forestville with her husband, Ryan. (The two were named Chronicle Winemakers to Watch earlier this year.) There are five artisan Beaujolais, and a handful more Gamay Noirs for good measure.

Passionfish’s ways may be quirky, but the restaurant sells its share of wine: $500,000 worth per year, or about 100 cases of wine per month (that’s about 1,200 bottles). This tiny venue on the Monterey Peninsula has an outrageously large inventory for a business its size. But the wine sells.

And selling at bargain-basement prices? That’s been baked into their budget for nearly two decades. If, for some reason, nothing among their 400 selections appeals, feel free to bring a wine for corkage. They mark up so modestly that corkage provides a solid profit.

In creating a haven for wine nerds, Passionfish broke nearly every rule of Monterey restaurantdom. Ted and Cindy Walter were both locals — Cindy grew up in Carmel Valley, Ted in Salinas — and by the time they opened a restaurant on Lighthouse Avenue, perhaps a block past Pacific Grove’s most strollable stretch, they already knew how crucial it was to preserve the diversity of ocean life in nearby Monterey Bay, a priority echoed by the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

But their restaurant was located away from the water. “We’re in a bad location,” Ted says. “No ocean view. We’re not on the wharf. No one’s going to walk by here.”

So they offered two alternative selling points, both of which are part of every diner’s introduction to Passionfish. Servers describe the importance of serving sustainably caught seafood — the kitchen, under Ted’s watch, is fanatical on this point — and introduce a wine list that makes no logical sense.

The wine part was Ted’s invention, one born out of a grand spirit of exploration: If wines were priced at a sustainable markup, rather than the usual profit-generating approach (the typical restaurant marks up wine about three times the wholesale cost), diners might be more willing to explore.

Comfort zones

That has, for the most part, been exactly what happened. Around 2010, Ted, who still serves as chef, began handing the wine buying to one of his longtime servers, Jannae Lizza, who helped the couple open the restaurant. Today Lizza is both general manager and wine director, and under her gaze, the list continues to nudge patrons just a bit out of their comfort zones.

But the Walters were also trying to build an extended family with their restaurant. This is literal: Megan worked there as a teen, sharing wine reference books with Lizza. On the day I visited, her children — Cindy and Ted’s grandkids — were climbing on a banquette, sporting the spoils of a thrift-store shopping trip for Halloween costumers.

This warmer approach helps to set the tone for a wine list that can be intimidating, even with the pricing. On the other hand, when a bottle is about half what you’d pay for it at a restaurant, even timid drinkers are a bit more willing to take a chance. That opens the possibility of a new, or renewed, love affair with wine. Look no further for an example than Passionfish’s accountant, whom Lizza quickly hooked on the Pinot Noirs from Sonoma’s Cobb Wines.

“We sell gateway drugs,” she says.

'Punk kids’

There is little about the Passionfish wine list that makes sense, in a conventional way. Reds are listed before the whites — this is at a seafood restaurant, mind you. “Any wine list starts with whites, so we’re just being punk kids,” Ted says.

It also wanders further afield than almost any other list in Monterey County. There’s a roster of New Californian baubles — items like Blaufrankisch from Sebastopol’s Wind Gap, Syrah from Enfield and Jolie-Laide, Gamay Noir from RPM — as well as an elite roster from around the world: St. Joseph from Rhone sage Pierre Gonon; Barolo from Giuseppe Mascarello and Bruno Giacosa; Champagne from tiny producer Marie-Courtin, in the little-heralded Cote des Bar.

Lizza gets input from her servers on what they love to drink — and in return, puts them through a rigorous study regimen that would put most four-star venues to shame. The list, she says, “has become layers of 'Who’s here?’”

That means servers participate in tastings, and contribute their personal fetishes, so long as they’re willing to sell them to customers. They’re routinely studying and being quizzed, pens and paper in hand. I’ve witnessed training like this at San Francisco venues like RN74, but here it’s far more personal.

“Jannae’s training program is crazy,” Ted says. “They literally are studying every night.”

Case in point: My server one night, Holly James, gardens as a hobby, which led to curiosity about biodynamics and farming practices, as well as a fondness for Cabernet Franc. That’s currently reflected with 10 Francs, from Lieu Dit in the Santa Ynez Valley to Saumur Rouge from Domaine Guiberteau.

“I’m your personal shopper,” Lizza says, by way of explaining how she talks with customers. “I’m going to give you three options. One’s going to be out there, one’s going to be totally familiar and one’s going to be in the middle.”

This isn’t to say that Passionfish doesn’t support Monterey wine; there are about 40, typically a few at the top of each page, wines like Albatross Ridge Pinot Noir from Carmel Valley and Heller Estate’s Malbec. Some are priced lower than at nearby tasting rooms. Even so, Ted says, “We get a lot of blowback.”

Local fare is more conventionally reflected at, say, the lists nearby at Pebble Beach — almost entirely dominated by corporate brands and fodder for label chasers. It is understandable why Passionfish draws more wine professionals from San Francisco than from closer by. They come for a secret that still remains largely undiscovered in Monterey: a wine list to make big-city tastemakers envious.

If you go

Passionfish: 701 Lighthouse Ave., Pacific Grove. (831) 655-3311. www.passionfish.net. Dinner nightly. Reservations accepted.