Soif Wine Bar & Merchant - (831) 423-2020

I was here 2 years ago for the first time with my now husband. We had such a magical first date! The food was amazing and we had a great time sharing the small plates; the wine pairings were perfect - they definetly know what they are doing! We have been back quite a few times since then, and are always impressed. The live music is fun and the atmosphere is a perfect amount of laidback - no snobbiness at all, just a great appreciation for both food and wine!

If you like wine, and some great food to go with it...definitely stop in at Soif. While the whole place is nice, my wife and I love to hang at the bar...which is the place to be for a party of one or two. The food is awesome...they have a wide variety of small plates, but only about 3-4 entrees at any given time. However, the menu changes often, so you are constantly experiencing new things. I rarely make my own wine selections; trusting in Hugh, the sommelier, to do the matching with my food. He never fails, and I only get a deeper appreciation of wine from all over the world. Soif has a fairly small number of CA wines, rather it focuses on European wine for the most part. No reservations except for large groups. Try during the week, as they often have live music.

Should you go? YES. This place is fun and the wine is GREAT. Add the cheese plate, try a flight of 2 oz selections and go eat somewhere else. Easily 4 stars, almost 5, but well worth the visit. It's located in the heart of downtown. I made a reservation, parked two hours early and enjoyed walking keep Santa Cruz weird Pacific Avenue shopping area. We saw some weird things, for sure, like strange clowns, bongo players not taking money, some hippies sitting in the back of a pickup truck looking at us looking at them, a guy in a donkey outfit, Hell's Angels, joggers going backwards, and plenty of stores with wild weird things. SOIF chairs and tables are somewhat Spartan as is the decor, but the help is helpful and well versed in wine. You get a HUGH amount of printer matter with lots of choices (five pages printed front and back). Ignore it. Here is the $50 worth of SOIF best bet. Order the $14 Artisan Cheese Plate and the $5 Marinated Olives. Ask the waiter to selec