You’ve probably heard of Cote du Rhone, or Cote d’Or, or even the more exacting Cote de Nuits and Cote de Beaune.  These are some of the greatest wine regions in France.  Cote du Rhone wines come from the “cote” (hillside or slopes) of the Rhone River.  Cote de Nuits and Cote de Beaune wines come from the “cote” (hillside or slopes), along a limestone ridge that has proven over the centuries to produce unparalleled Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

But the French Word “cote” has another meaning that we have come to embrace.  In English that word is “rib”.   

(Cote also can mean “coast” as in Cote d’Ivoire, Ivory Coast, but that’s not our concern here)

A decade ago when CorkMaster Wines & Spirits opened on Mosholu Ave we took to the neighborhood immediately.  Indeed, one of our first employees, (putting herself through Orthodontics School working part-time), so loved the neighborhood that upon graduating opened her practice right across the street.  Meanwhile, we were dreaming of a way to connect the wine store to a cozy and unpretentious space to make new friends and explore new wine in a convivial atmosphere.  And just as a rib “cote” was taken from Adam to create Eve, CorkMaster offered a rib to create Cote Wine Bar.

Rockwood Hall was a 204-room mansion owned last by the Rockefeller family.  William Rockefeller died there in 1922.  And then in the mid-1940’s two unexplained things happened …Rockwood Hall was razed and a small portion of that exquisite woodwork ended up in the Sleepy Hollow office of a gravestone maker.  That’s where we found it.

Here is the other important happenstance … we chanced upon master furniture maker and educator Jeff Johnson.  Jeff took the paneling, pillars and even fireplace that had been offloaded in the Mosholu Ave property, and voila … you have the convivial atmosphere of Cote Wine Bar, CorkMaster’s Rib and the rib (cote) to our North Riverdale neighborhood.