Wine it your way at Tintino

I've always liked retail spaces that do multiple things at once. Florists doubling as art galleries. Bookshops that sling coffee. When I went to university in Bathurst in NSW's Central West there was famously a shop that sold pets, bikes and firearms (there was always some concern about the intentions of anyone who bought all three items at once). 

The most satisfying and practical of the genre is of course the winebar/bottleshop hybrid. You can find them all over the country but Canberra seems to be particularly fond of them.[[Paranormal Wines in Campbell and Cork & Glass in Yarralumla are two fine examples.]]And the latest, Tintino in Kingston, deserves a place in your regular rotation.

What strikes me first upon arrival at its Kennedy Street location is the cleverness of the layout. Sometimes venues trying to juggle two purposes give too much space to one and not enough to the other. Here, every bit of real estate is used carefully, so the sit-down guests are tucked neatly out of the way of the wine-browsers, and given enough breathing space that they're not nudging each other's nebbiolo. The comfy seats along the tactile brushbox timber bar are the best option if you want to chat to the team about their recommended pours for the night; the window seats are the pick if you want to eyeball the pollies, powerbrokers and flacks darting furtively into the legendary Portia's Place next door for crispy duck pancakes and connivances.