This new spot in downtown Macon offers quality, unique wines and premium meats, cheese

A new intimate, upscale gathering spot quietly opened this month in downtown Macon.

Philosophie at 616 Poplar St. offers a unique curation of quality wines and charcuterie boards with premium meats, cheese and accompaniments

“The vision was to bring something downtown that downtown has not had yet,” said Nick Rizkalla, who handles business development and marketing for the establishment.

Ambiance

The small wine and charcuterie bar was designed to create a soft sophisticated space.

“If you go around Macon, you get a lot of that industrial feel … a lot of the dark woods, a lot of the metal … a lot of the metal beams and stuff that you see in the industrial style architecture,” Rizkalla said. “And we took this and kind of flipped it and this is a lot more whites, a lot more linens.”

White drapes grace a side wall, turquoise blue chairs are stationed at white-topped tables and light pink bar stools align the bar.

“We really wanted to cater to just a little bit to everybody but also more towards women,” Rizkalla said. “My wife (Chelsea) … said ‘You know, downtown doesn’t really have a place that you can go with your girlfriends and enjoy … a glass of wine or … something before you go to dinner. Everything seems to be catered a little bit towards men.’

“So, we took that and kind of ran with it and we wanted to bring something that was a little bit more feminine that women felt comfortable to bring their girlfriends to and have a nice glass of wine and … a charcuterie board before … they went to dinner or even after dinner … a place that they could come and kind of hang out and have a conversation.”

Philosophie uses light jazz or low key music to help create a relaxing ambiance also designed for enjoying good company and conversation.

The wine

“We have varieties of wine from all over the world — Greece, Israel, Italy, France, Spain,” Rizkalla said. “You name it, we probably have wine from there.”

The wines have been carefully curated by Ashley Simeone, who’s been in the restaurant industry for years, has helped lots of restaurants and bars open up in Savannah and is a close friend, Rizkalla said.

“For the most part, you’re not going to find any of the bottles that we have in Philosophie at any other restaurant downtown,” Rizkalla said.

Philosophie also boasts a self-contained, cooled wine cellar kept at 59 to 60 degrees that doubles as a bottle shop.

“It’s not just for our inventory but we have bottles that people can purchase out of there,” Rizkalla said.

The expanding wine list already includes more than 70 offerings.

“The wine list just continues to grow,” Rizkalla said. “We’re filling it up weekly so that every time you go in there, you’re gonna find something new.”

The goal of Philosophie is to introduce new flavors to the pallet by encouraging customers to step outside their comfort zone and explore new wines, he said.

For example, instead of a glass of Pinot Noir, try Pinotage, a South African wine by Radley & Finch.

“Pinotage is very similar in taste and palate,” Rizkalla said.

Wines are offered by the glass (5 ounces), by carafe (10 ounces) and by the bottle. Bottles may be opened in house, recorked and packaged to take home, or they may be purchased to go.

“We want people to kind of have a little bit of freedom there to try different things,” Rizkalla said.

Philosophie offers an online online reservation system.

“We do recommend reservations but they are not required,” said Rizkalla, noting that the small venue seats up to 45 people. “They can book directly through our website.”

The wine and charcuterie bar, which will have its first wine pairing in November, also will offer wine education classes and a wine club.

Charcuterie boards

“On the charcuterie, it is a new concept that we came up with and it’s build your own charcuterie boards,” Rizkalla said. “We offer small, medium and large boards with pick three meats and or cheeses and choose your accompaniments with it.

“So, it gets a little bit more interactive and this is going back to some of the different wine pairings … You get to pick your meats, your cheeses and your accompaniments.”

For example, a meat called Felino, which is soaked and cured with red wine, would pair well with red wines because it has a lot of the flavor profiles of red wine that it’s made with, Rizkalla said.

Among the cheeses offered that’s “very different” is Coco Cardona, which has coco powder around the rim of the cheese but doesn’t taste sweet as a result as might be expected, he said.

Accompaniments include fig jam, local honey, pickled ginger, assorted olives and more.

“A little bit of everything to choose from,” Rizkalla said.

Philosophie Chef Abigail Miller designs the charcuterie boards.

“We have a young chef that works for us that has been doing an amazing job,” Rizkalla said.

Kyle Tucker, a familiar face that many customers will likely recognize from the former Marco Ristorante Italiano on Forsyth Road and the former Roasted Cafe & Lounge in downtown Macon, serves as the establishment’s general manager. Rizkalla opened the Roasted Cafe in 2011 and closed it in 2017 when he started his own marketing company.

“There’s such a large population of people that enjoy good wine and they’re just honestly underserved,” Rizkalla said. “So, we want to tap into that market.

Rizkalla wants Philosophie to be known as Macon’s premier wine shop.

“We’re different. We’re unique,” he said. “We want to cater to those people that really want a stellar experience when they come in and enjoy wine and eat meats and cheeses.”

Opens early

Philosophie opens at 2 p.m., a time when a lot of downtown restaurants and bars are closed between lunch and dinner.

One of the reasons for opening that early, Rizkalla said, was to provide a space for business professionals who may want to have a late afternoon client meeting or finish the business day with wine and charcuterie.

The establishment also opens early to offer fine wine to take home from its bottle shop, which is especially beneficial to people who live and work downtown, he said.

The wine and charcuterie bar was opened quietly, Rizkalla said, so they could get their feet on the ground and work out any kinks with a brand new team working together.

Front row seats

They also opened in time to watch lights starting to go up for the annual Macon Christmas Light Extravaganza.

The establishment’s window seats offer a front row view to a section of the downtown light show that boasts 500,000 lights synchronized to music.

Rizkalla expects Philosophie will offer some spiked hot chocolate and other hot specialties to help warm up folks who come out for the popular event.

“We’re just excited to be down there to open right before the light show because it’s such a big deal in Macon now,” Rizkalla said. “I mean, I think they estimated that they’re gonna have maybe a million people come through downtown.

“So that’s huge for us. We’re really excited about that and we’re excited about that for downtown in general because the lights bringing people downtown is going to let people see what we have to offer downtown.”

Hours are 2-9 p.m. Tuesday to Thursday and 2-10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Private parties can be scheduled on Sundays and Mondays through the holidays, with the wine and charcuterie bar expected to also open on Sundays after the New Year.

This story was originally published October 27, 2022 at 1:00 AM.