AYZA at 19: Looking Back on 18 Years of Wine & Chocolate

A restaurant that lasts nineteen years in Midtown Manhattan is doing something right, and it is rarely the thing you would guess. AYZA Wine & Chocolate Bar opened at 11 West 31st Street in 2007, marked eighteen years in 2025, and is now in its nineteenth year of pouring wine and making chocolate on the same block. This is the short version of how that happened and what the place is today.

An unusual idea in 2007

Putting chocolate at the centre of a wine bar was not an obvious move. Wine bars in 2007 were about small plates and long lists; chocolate belonged at the end of the meal, if at all. Treating it as a partner to wine rather than an afterthought meant building a menu around a pairing most restaurants avoid, because dark chocolate and dry red wine are genuinely difficult together.

That difficulty turned out to be the point. Solving it requires matching sweetness levels deliberately, which is why the pairing flights here are built chocolate first and wine second, rather than the other way round. Nineteen years later it is still the thing that makes the place hard to compare with anywhere else in Midtown.

The room, and the ceiling

The dining room is lit by 33 handmade iridescent glass lights created by artist Sinem Disli. They hang at different heights and give the impression of dining beneath a glowing night sky, which is a better description than it sounds because the light is soft without being so low that you cannot read the menu.

Behind the dining room there is a heated garden filled with flowers. It is the quieter of the two spaces and it stays usable well past October, which in Midtown is unusual. Between them, the two rooms are why a lot of first visits turn into second ones.

What has stayed the same

• Chocolate Martinis. Classic, Espresso, Raspberry and White Chocolate, now $19 each, with the No. 19 at $26 and six minis for two at $57.
• Chocolate made in house. A five piece house selection is $17, alongside Jacques Torres at $15 and a three piece vegan M. Jardine selection at $14.
• Fondue for two. Still built around a choice of Belgian milk, Belgian white or 70 percent Ecuadorian dark chocolate.
• Sharing. Boards for two, plates designed to go to the middle of the table, and a 15 percent discount on any bottle when you order a board.

What has changed

The wine list has moved steadily toward New York producers. Dr. Konstantin Frank Grüner Veltliner, Brotherhood Riesling, Keuka Cayuco Brut, Keuka dry rosé and Bully Hill Cabernet Franc are all poured by the glass, next to a Sancerre, a Chablis, a Chianti Classico and a California Cabernet. The whole list is on the cocktails and wines menu.

The kitchen has grown into a full European leaning dinner menu rather than a bar snack list: boards at $35 and $39, White Truffle Pizza at $16, Braised Short Rib at $33, Pici Cacio e Pepe at $24 and Cauliflower with Wild Mushrooms at $25, with vegetarian, vegan and gluten free dishes marked throughout the dinner menu. Mocktails were added as a proper category rather than a courtesy, and the events side has expanded into guided tastings and private bookings.

The anniversary videos

Two short films were made to mark the anniversary. They show the room, the garden and the chocolate work better than a description does.

The anniversary was also covered in a syndicated press release if you want the announcement in its original form.

What AYZA is today

Dessert is still where most evenings end. The Sweet Treats menu lists the two fondues at $31 and $29, chocolate cake, a gluten free coconut flan, affogato and olive oil gelato with hot honey. Guided wine tasting classes run one hour from $59 per person for booked groups, and there is more on the space and the story on the AYZA wine bar page.

Questions about AYZA

Visit

Nineteen years in, AYZA Wine & Chocolate Bar is still doing the same thing it started with: wine, chocolate and a room worth sitting in. Doors open at 4 pm.

Menu items, prices and hours were checked against ayzanyc.com on September 9, 2026.