Best of New York 2014 • Eating

• The Simone

  151 E. 82nd St., nr. Lexington Ave.; 212-772-8861

  Tina Vaughn has been matching wines to her husband Chip Smith’s food since their first restaurant in North Carolina. Not so much a stodgy sommelier as a giddy grape nut, Vaughn has a knack for flavor combinations and a desire to please—even customers who’ll only drink red with flounder paupiettes. Submit to her, though, at $45 per, and you’ll learn how the 2010 Domaine Bechtold Pinot Gris Silberberg “just loves” the sweetbreads’ mustard beurre blanc, and why a certain Alsatian Gewürztraminer is a lardon-studded Caesar’s best friend. As for that flounder: What better than a floral white from the restaurant’s Provençal namesake, Château Simone?

From the 2014 Best of New York issue of New York Magazine