Sip into something more comfortable at Bodega’s newest in Hollywood

Voignier. Petite Sirah. Malbec. Chenin Blanc. Most wine drinkers, if pressed, wouldn’t know what to order among these varietals. We find what we like — the trustworthy Chardonnay or Cabernet Sauvignon — and cleave to it. Secretly, we yearn for recommendations but don’t want to seem like the mouth-breathing savage at the bar. When Paul Giamatti’s character in “Sideways” waxed rhapsodic about Pinot Noir, it’s no wonder that sales spiked. We got the hot tip but didn’t have to deign to ask.

Bodega Wine Bar, a mini-chain that recently opened its third humble-but-chic depot in Hollywood, aims to encourage the curious novice to experiment with no recrimination from the Giamattis of the world. Like its sister bars in Pasadena and Santa Monica, the Hollywood Bodega Wine Bar prices nearly all of its pours at $9 a glass, allowing the buyer to relax for at least a few rounds.

Bodega co-owners Jason McEntee and Greg Seares didn’t have any firm plans to open a new location, but the Hollywood option dropped in their laps when a friend who worked for the CIM Group, owners of the building at Sunset and Vine, told them a space was available.

They opened their second location in Santa Monica four years ago — just enough time to have forgotten what it’s like to kick-start a new place; licensing alone required a bureaucratic crawl that took seven months. Bodega Hollywood opened in late July.

But it is easier to open another bar when the identity is fixed.

“We’re not looking to go for the high-end crowd. We’re affordable and laid-back,” Seares said. He and McEntee landed on the pricing formula a couple of months after opening their first location in Pasadena in 2002.

“We wanted to make wine more approachable, like beer,” Seares said.

They also eschew stemware in favor of tumblers, which might be the classier version of serving ale in Mason jars. It’s another reflection of their rustic but stylish take on the wine bar, as embodied in the appearance of all of their locations, each designed by the MAKE architecture firm in Silver Lake.

The three Bodegas are all a little different but united by a mix of raw architectural space and polished, unexpected features.

For the lofty Hollywood location with its 20-foot ceilings, MAKE principals Jess Mullen-Carey and William Beauter took some of their cues from cinema. One wall is dominated by a series of panels depicting the mid-pour slosh inside a wineglass.

“In simple terms, we designed a filmstrip,” Mullen-Carey said. “As you proceed deeper into the space, the ‘frames’ show the glass becoming more and more full.”

But Mullen-Carey and Beauter didn’t want it to be too obvious either. “It is intentionally abstract,” Mullen-Carey said. “Some see it right away; others take a little while.”

In other words, fitting art for spacing out between pulls on a McManis Petite Sirah, so purple it’s nearly black, equal parts berry jam and vanilla smoke. It’s one of the few priced above $9, but there’s plenty to be had in that range too, such as the fresh honeysuckle of the White Knight Voignier. There’s also a light menu of salads, pressed sandwiches and pizzas.

On a quiet Monday night, the bar was sparsely populated with small groups of friends lounging on the velvet banquettes and white leather stools and a few groups of tourists, but not the kind palming their cameras in case one of those beautiful movie stars happened to pop in.

It’s the low-key vibe McEntee and Seares want to cultivate in their customer base and in business practice. When asked if they’d be opening another location soon, Seares mentioned Sherman Oaks but said nothing was planned.

In their late 30s now, Seares and McEntee are far from those days when they were 28, crashing together at Seares’ parents’ house in Pasadena until they got their first bar up and running.

“Most of our investors are friends and family,” Seares said. “If we get too big, it gets too corporate. We want to stay small and tightknit.”

margaret.wappler@latimes.com

Bodega Wine Bar in Hollywood

Where: 6290 Sunset Blvd.

When: Open daily at 5 p.m.

Price: Nearly all wines at $9 a glass

Contact: (323) 464-3400