THE WINE LIST

Noise, clunky glassware, a high corkage charge, uninformed service and other minor irritants may make the Broadway Deli seem, at first glance, a rotten place for a wine lover.

But this is a restaurant with many wine-drinking virtues, and there is a lot of potential for improvement.

One sign of sophistication is the single-page computerized list of wines embedded in one of the plastic holders at the back of the menu. There are 100 items on it, and they are thoughtful choices, reasonably priced.

For example, of the 85 table wines on the list, no fewer than 34 are priced under $20. Wonderful idea, since Trefethen Eshcol red (misspelled on the wine list) goes great with meat loaf and mashed potatoes . . . especially when it’s only $11 a bottle. And there are 13 table wines by the glass, none over $5.75.

But if your wine preferences stretch beyond the deli’s list, you’ll have to pay a $10 corkage charge--pretty high, considering the atmosphere, service and glassware.

But John Penoff, the wine manager, has grand ideas, some of which may be seen inside a small, triangular retail wine room in the corner of the deli’s foyer: the temperature-controlled, glass-walled space has more than 300 facings of wines that evoke tremors in wine collectors.

What first caught my eye, from 40 paces and through the glass wall, was the bottle of 1986 Antinori Solaia. Money alone doesn’t get a restaurant this kind of wine. In fact money is not what this kind of wine is about. Solaia is one of the greatest of Italy’s new-wave reds, a Cabernet-based wine that sells for $50 a bottle upon release. However, it scarcely ever hits the retail shelf at any price; nearly all of it is sold under the counter to special customers. Fortunately for the Broadway Deli, co-owner Marvin Zeidler is a respected wine collector--and one of those special customers.

It’s sold in the wine shop for $63.50 (slightly overpriced; the 1982 version sells for $68). Even with the $10 corkage, that means you could have it at your table for $73.50. Not bad.

Still, with all the Broadway Deli’s noise, and in those tiny glasses . . . . I mentioned this to Penoff. He admitted that he’s thought of offering a better glass for wines of the Solaia’s quality.

The rest of the wine room is filled with stuff to make a collector swoon: oodles of Gaja and Ceretto wines from the Piedmont of Italy, a 1959 Bordeaux, a slew of creative and well-priced California wines. Diners must ask for the complete list to take full advantage; the shorter one, inside the menu, does not list everything, though it includes such bargains as 1987 Bonny Doon Clos du Gilroy ($12.50), 1989 Bonny Doon Chardonnay ($15), 1987 Saintsbury Pinot Noir ($22.50), and 1988 Phelps Gewurztraminer ($12).