Salute Wine Bar & Cafe [CLOSED]

About a dozen of 80 Italian wines are available by the glass at this subterranean wine bar, but without an informed waitress, it was a challenge to choose. Small plates, however, were easier to select—since a quarter of the menu of cured meats, cheeses and small plates was for some unexplained reason unavailable on a recent visit. What we ended up with (a barely toasted four-cheese panino, a circle of grainy polenta topped with mushrooms, refrigerator-cold slices of bread pudding as dense as a terrine) veered from satisfying downward.