Wolf & Deer: More Than Just a Trendy Name

Don’t ask me why, but I naturally gravitate toward stuff involving and/or relating to wolves.

Reading Little Red Riding Hood as a child, I always thought that grandma-gulper was much cooler than Red and her do-gooder cronies. In college, my ear buds were bumping indie pulp like Wolf Parade, Sea Wolf, and Peanut Butter Wolf. Even nowadays I offer an appreciative nod anytime a hipster repping a White Fang T-shirt crosses my path. So you can imagine my excitement when I read that a new bar, Wolf & Deer, was opening on Fifth Avenue this month.

When I met up with the owners to investigate, I learned two things: 1) This bar just so happens to sound like a sweet summer hangout and 2) I am not alone in my enthusiasm for Canis Lupus.

You see, the bar’s co-owners Raphael Hasid and Daniel Bailey named the joint — formerly Total Wine Bar — after their beautiful bouncing newborns. Hasid’s son is named Eyal, Hebrew for ‘deer,’ and Bailey’s son goes by Ze’ev, or ‘wolf.’

The two both hail from Israel, though they met in New York. They’ve been friends for 11 years, and — in an effort to earn a livelihood for their sons — decided to combine their talents and open a bar at 74 Fifth Avenue. Hasid, who runs the Fifth Avenue Israeli restaurant Miriam, is currently working with a mixologist to finalize the bar’s menu of seasonal, fruit-based cocktails. He also plans to stock the bar with local booze (like Sixpoint and Kelso) and snacks (like cheese from Stinky Bklyn, bread from Caputo’s Bake Shop). Draft beers will stream from a snazzy copper tap custom-made by Bailey.

As for wine, you’ll be able to order any one you want by the glass — no matter if it’s the cheap stuff or that dusty $100 bottle you’ve been longing to sip on.

Bailey, who co-owns the Bushwick-based metal shop Hard Décor, has designed the mostly wood and steel interior. He describes it as simple and rustic and “not steampunk” (sorry, Here's Park Slope).

“I want you to see the structure,” Bailey said. “I want it to describe itself. And I think the place is very much that way — it’s not a thin veneer over ten layers of other stuff. It is what it is.”

The most crucial element to Wolf & Deer’s vibe will be its U-shaped bar, according to Bailey and Hasid.

“There are a lot of places like that in Tel Aviv,” Hasid said. “It’s a very nice way for people to deal with other people they don’t really know. Because you sit very close to people next to you but also to the people across the bar from you. It’s very warm and friendly.”

And speaking of warmth, Baily has engineered the store front's doors so they open up onto the street, allowing the breeze to roll in on those sticky summer nights.

“On top of just being able to open it, we wanted to have this conversation with Fifth Avenue,” Bailey said.