At Stars, the premise is simple.

“Grab a glass, grab a bottle, chill out. Talk to your friend,” says Chase Sinzer of his new East Village wine bar. Sinzer and business partner Josh Pinsky, who first met working at Momofuku Ko, are opening Stars just two blocks away from their beloved wine-forward restaurants, Claud and Penny.

Stars channels the creativity of downtown New York, and is named in homage to Frank Stella, whose work is featured prominently in the space. Stella’s two pieces, an enamel “No Smoking” sign that hangs in the bathroom and “Noguchi’s Okinawa Woodpecker, from the Exotic Bird Series” displayed in the main bar room, are both on loan from the family.

“He was asked one time why he always does stars, and he’s like, it’s my name,” says Sinzer of the Stars-Stella connection. “The story of him being like, ‘this is my name, and I just wanna make stars,’ we were like — this is a wine bar. We just want it to be a great wine bar.”

The Stars team has the credentials to make it great: Sinzer was named Michelin Guide’s New York Sommelier of the Year in 2024, and in tandem with wine director Julia Schwartz and other sommeliers has built up an impressive cellar since opening Claud in 2022.

“This list has taken us years to put together,” says Sinzer, flipping through the Stars wine menu, which features options from regions around the world. “We’re trying to invest everything we can in wine. For us, it’s the benchmark of what we’re trying to do.”

The list features around 1,000 bottles, with 88 options available for under $88, and an emphasis on offering great value — all of the wines being poured by the glass on the opening menu come in under $20. In addition to wine, there are several non-alcoholic options, sakes, and a couple of cocktails. All of the bartenders at Stars are sommeliers, on hand to offer guidance or just pour the requested varietal.

“The number-one question from a som should always be, ‘what do you like?’ And if [the guest] is like, ‘honestly, I don’t know,’ then we step in,” says Sinzer. “But when we do our job, we’re listening to what you want, instead of telling you what you might like.”

The wine list is accompanied by a succinct menu of snacks, designed without specific beverage pairing in mind. Options include buckwheat blinis and stuffed peppadew peppers. “What we really want to cultivate here is that when you come in here, you don’t feel any of the rigor of a full meal,” says Sinzer of their culinary approach. “You feel this incredibly casual, chill experience, that you can make what you want it to be.”

Interiors were designed by Studio Valle de Valle, with Stars marking the design studio’s first bar project in the U.S. The intimate space is anchored by a central 12-seat zinc horseshoe bar, with additional standing room on the periphery. Brushed cedar panel walls and vintage table lamps bring warmth to the single-room space, which features an open kitchen stretching along the far wall. Seating was custom designed, with mobility for socializing top of mind. 

“ Wine is so important here. Food is super important. But design is everything for the space — the vibe and the feeling is everything,” says Sinzer of the aesthetic, which has a lived-in quality that quickly transports guests from the concrete sidewalk just feet away.

Asked about his own go-to order at Stars, Sinzer doesn’t hesitate to draw attention to the “textural” Spanish white wine by the glass option currently on the menu, Cume do Avia “Colleita No. 10.” “I would have it with marinated vegetables and chorizo, and some deviled eggs, and be in heaven,” he says.