la compagnie des vins surnaturels

La Compagnie des Vins Surnaturels is a hip wine bar with excellent biodynamic options. I struggled with giving this a heart (favorite) or a check (pretty good) on my NYC Things to Do & See map. It would hands-down receive a heart for the wine, but the combination of food and service downgraded it. This is an outstanding place to go if you are shopping in SoHo and need a glass of wine (or a bathroom break with a glass of wine) between 5 and 7 pm. The wine and snacks are interesting and extremely affordable during happy hour - $5 for each snack with an asterisk or $20 for all 5 of them and $5 off any glass of wine (except the mystery glass).We thoroughly enjoyed a glass of Spanish orange wine, a Rhone white blend, and a Chablis, along with fennel-spiced olives, salt & vinegar pistachios, and asparagus with wood ear mushrooms and sabayon. The pecorino and black pepper popcorn (a bit chewy) and the meat and cheese were perfectly fine. The Calendar Island mussels were too large in size (huge!) and only so-so in flavor. We actually left half of them. The service was slow, traffic from the Holland Tunnel entrance was loud, and the quiet seat in the window loses its privacy when someone is seated outside inches from you (with a window separating). We will definitely go back at some point but will only order wine and snacks.