We entered the "Hoffman" wine bar in Rishon Lezion on a cold and rainy winter evening, completely wet.
It was after a long walk down Jabotinsky Street - the center of Rishon's bars and pubs, in the middle of a winter rainstorm.
We turned off the side road into a small street that looked like a classic Israeli residential neighborhood, not the kind that hosts any entertainment venues.
At first we were sure we got the address wrong.
The outdoor seating was deserted due to the rain, but in one moment, when we went inside and took off our coats, we felt at home.
feeling of home,
The mix of people there was diverse.
A few girlfriends who met after work, a pair of businessmen in suits and a couple on a date that seemed to be at a very non-committal stage.
But the show was stolen by three friends sitting by the bar dressed in pajamas, one of them in huge, yellow pajamas of the minions.
There is no stronger statement of "this is my second home" than this.
Retam Lev Ari, the owner and our bartender for the evening, puts a couple of glasses of wine in our hands and tells us a little about the background of the place.
"Hoffman", her last name before marriage, was established on the street where Ben Ari lives, a long-standing dream of establishing a place in her city of residence on the purity of wine.
The glorious historical past of the Carmel Mizrahi Winery and Baron de Rothschild earned Rishon LeZion the title of "Wine City", but the winery has long ceased to operate and there is not a single wine bar in the city.
Most of the customers are addicted faces from the neighborhood or the region, and according to Ben Ari, the circle is expanding.
The only wine bar in the wine city, photo: Gil Aviram
It is not clear if Hoffman, is a wine shop that has a bar or a bar that has a wine shop.
At both ends of the business, there is an attempt to be precise and not to shoot everywhere.
It is not an endless wine shop that tries to hit every taste and every genre, but a careful collection of bottles from the country and around the world (emphasis on Portugal and France) of wines of all kinds and compositions.
It is evident that Lev Ari's love for the Israeli wine industry stems from a very deep place and she has a special fondness for wineries and small producers.
The food at Hoffmann's doesn't steal the show and tends more towards a snack with the wine than a real meal.
It serves a plate of quality charcuterie with mustard and gherkins (79 NIS), a plate of smoked and marinated fish with crème fraîche (82 NIS), a plate of Bracken cheeses with homemade confit (66 NIS).
Alongside a plate of breads that comes with butter, olive oil and reduced balsamic, olives and spicy (NIS 24).
The smoked fish plate, a slightly less acceptable addition to the wine, is surprisingly successful and beats the other two by knockout.
tends to snack alongside the wine,
The wine poured into the glasses changes daily, or it rests on the wind to change it.
Anyway the rules are clear, on a roll of craft paper on the wall there is a list of the wines that are open for drinking by the glass.
Some red, some white, all according to the familiarity and taste of the owner of the place, who made wine a lifestyle.
The pricing is fair and accessible and the variety is sufficient.
"It was important to me to bring something that is not there to the former, a different drinking experience, and also to provide quality and pleasant entertainment for those who are tired of traveling to Tel Aviv. Hoffman is a neighborhood or regional wine bar, an unpretentious place. And I would like to allow my customers to drink different wines that they have not tried before, But in a friendly and neighborly manner, which makes them feel very comfortable," Lev Ari says.
Hoffman // PR
Had Hoffman been in the midst of a cosmopolitan and bustling metropolis, there would have been little to write about.
It was another cute neighborhood bar that the locals swear is the best in the world and passers-by who happen upon the neighborhood wonder about our pitcher and say to themselves "I would like a place like this near home".
But in Rishon Lezion, "Hoffman" takes on a much more important status, as a leader in wine culture and a place to spend time without "going out", like at home.
I received the proof of this claim a few days later, when the Rishon resident company already said that she had time to visit him for the third time.
"There is simply no other place like this here, it is simply required."
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