Now open: Wineside in Minnetonka has 104 wines on tap and gourmet groceries

A serve-yourself wine bar opening today in Minnetonka will be a one-of-a-kind addition to the western suburbs — and beyond.

"There's nothing like it in Minnesota," said Jon Halper, owner and CEO of Top Ten Liquors and Wineside, the new interactive restaurant and market.

It's not that tap walls and card-operated pouring devices are new — you can find them at First Draft and the Market at Malcolm Yards, just to name two — but Wineside is unique in the sheer number of options. There are 104 wines on tap.

In addition, nearly everything served in the restaurant, from bubbly and cheese to charcuterie and tinned fish, is available to purchase in the attached liquor store or gourmet grocery.

"The goal here is to come and have all these different tasting experiences, and if you love the things that you're eating, if you love the wine, you can bring them home with you," Halper said. "It just ties the whole thing together."

Here's how it works: Guests who enter the complex near Ridgedale Center, in what used to be a Champps, can head straight into the massive new liquor store. Or, hang a right and walk into a market filled with both local and imported artisan products, such as colorful packages of 2-foot-long spaghetti, and dainty cakes by John Kraus of Patisserie 46. At a host stand, you can link your credit or debit card to a card that operates the wine machines. Then, scan your card at the station that has the wine you'd like to try, select your pour size (they're priced accordingly), and collect your vino. The card will keep a running tab of your purchases.

To pair with the wine, there's a menu by top Twin Cities chef J.D. Fratzke, who's well known from his days helming the acclaimed St. Paul restaurant Strip Club Meat & Fish. He's created a list of tasting-friendly small plates and shareable boards — and a couple of entrees, like meatballs in red sauce and salmon — that lean Mediterranean, especially toward Spanish-style tapas.

"The idea came up of people sort of curating their own experience," Fratzke said, referring to the vast wine selection. "I wanted to make sure that came across in the food experience as well."

An abundance of tinned preserved fish from around the world is one way to build-your-own tasting, either at home or in the restaurant.

"It'll be this really simple experience of sipping your wine, concentrating on that, and then — wow, I didn't know a tin could taste like this," Fratzke said. "We're giving people an opportunity to taste a lot of things that they might not have had before."

Bringing it all together is, of course, the wine — "the largest by-the-glass assortment anywhere within hundreds and hundreds of miles," Halper said.

Behind that assortment is Siri Nyman, the wine buyer who's assembled Wineside's primary draw.

"I think about the selection of the wine sort of like how an artist or a producer would look at an album," Nyman said. "Or more apropos would be a conductor. I look at wine as a full orchestral piece. How are my white wines, how are my reds, and within those, who's making the viola and the bass? That's what I think about when I'm putting together the list."

Wineside, at 1641 Plymouth Road, Minnetonka, 952-600-7093, wineside.com, opens daily at 9 a.m. for coffee and 11 a.m. for lunch and dinner.