Mavrik Wine Bar’s cozy room with an open kitchen in the back (Image: Davida Aronovitch)

Mavrik Wine Bar, a cozy new place replacing the Korean spot San, quietly opened a couple weeks ago one door east of Queen West staple Czehoski. Following the lead of DeKefir, Prairie Girl Bakery and these guys, co-owners Joanne Park and Elizabeth Choi have done what so many cubicle-slaves only dream of. The childhood pals left high-paid corporate jobs to open their ideal hangout spot: a homey wine bar—hold the pretension. “We left our cares behind,” says Elizabeth, a former Wall Street trader whose love of wine was inspired by hip New York hubs like Terroir and Blue Ribbon.

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