Another affordable wine-heavy restaurant in Hell’s Kitchen, Bocca di Bacco serves more than 40 selections by the glass and over 500 by the bottle, all Italian, from an Enomatic dispensing system behind a long bar. With a stainless-steel robot doing all the pouring, the bartenders here can give off a bored vibe, but the warm décor of interior brick and wood beams is inviting nonetheless. The after-work crowd skews young due to a soundtrack of Mediterranean-styled trance and techno, but a cozy dining section in the rear half of the space is chilled out enough for intimate conversations. Chef-partner Roberto Passon (whose eponymous restaurant is nearby) offers Northern Italian cuisine, from small plates like pork-stuffed fried olives and octopus carpaccio to heaping dishes of lamb osso buco. But there’s not anything special going on here, and with a confusing name in a neighborhood full of similar haunts, Bocca di Bacco needs to stand out more than it does at the moment.
