Take two of the city’s finest wine minds and a long-time Andrew McConnell alum, stir in a handsomely renovated Victorian building, add a pinch of neighbourly bonhomie and what do you have? One of this year’s best new openings: Carlton Wine Room.

This fetching corner site has been pouring wine for fabulously eclectic Carlton for more than a decade, but its new incarnation with a trio of hospo lifers at the helm – Travis Howe (late of Coda and Tonka) and Andrew Joy (ex-Marion) out front; John Paul Twomey (Cutler & Co. founding head chef) on the pans – is likely its best yet.

That 100-strong wine list is a peripatetic labour of love filled with lesser-known grower/producers, and while there’s a fair bit of skin-contact funkiness for the believers, there’s ample approachable pours in gorgeous glassware for those who just want to drink, not think. That includes the texturally interesting, supremely tasty Little Ra Ra Rosé, made by Joy himself.

Likewise the menu is filled with food you want when you just want to eat, and big flavours and clever combinations abound. Plump mussels that taste of the sweet sea served with crunchy baby cucumbers, chickpeas, dill, and crème fraîche gets a big tick, as does a sublime plate of chunky kingfish crudo with pickled daikon batons and fresh horseradish. Juicy late-season tomatoes dressed with anchovies is nothing short of brilliant, while charred broccoli with fat, crisp pancetta and grated yolk is now the only way I want to eat my greens.

Dishes are offered in half sizes, making this the perfect spot for the solo diner perched at the communal table, but with booths upstairs it’s equally accommodating to the quartet catch-up and date-night duo. It’s warm and welcoming, run by a team with hospitality in their DNA. Yep, it’s a recipe for success.