Most Los Angeles wine bars have a few endemic problems: patrons are being snobby about something they don’t know much about, the glasses of wine aren’t cheap enough to facilitate trying multiple wines you wouldn’y just pony up the $20 for, and there’s a distinct lack of robots. Ugo Wine Bar solves at least the latter of the issues but employing (enslaving?) an Enomatic wine dispensing robot.

The Enomatic is a machine that allows you to pour perfectly measured tastes (NOT glasses) of wine from an array of bottles. The bottles are filled with argon so that the wine never oxidizes and spoils while waiting for you to take off the skirt and drink like you’re Handsome. Like anything with robots, Ugo is automatically cooler for having one. Beyond that, the machine only puts out an ounce at a time, just enough to sip and try more than a few wines without losing all sense of taste and dignity. The system is even more fun because you load up a card with money and then use the card to dispense. There are only a few outcomes for this:

• You try something expensive just to finish the card
• You forget how much you put on the card and drink like it’s an open bar
• You and your friends race to see who can finish the card first

The robot also makes for a good date place – you and your date can spend plenty of time aimlessly wandering around, looking at all the labels, switching off whose turn it is to pick the wine, feeding the robot your shameless blood money, then laboriously pretending to compare tasting notes while actually flirting. And averting the gaze of our robot masters.

Ugo Wine Bar

3865 Cardiff Ave.

Culver City, CA 90232