[News] – RVLT opens at Carpenter Street

Interior of RVLT

Industrial chic may be cliché but the 60-seat RVLT that oozes industrial-chic at Carpenter Street is nothing but.

Formerly a pop-up at Killiney Road, this natural wine bar has resurfaced with a brick and mortar establishment at 38 Carpenter Street, this time with a mishmash of bar tables and banquettes, enormous wine-inspired posters that adorn the walls and a 60-seat room packed to the rafters with natural wine lovers.

Unlike its pop-up at Killiney Road, RVLT also offers a menu of Spanish-inspired small plates by chef and co-owner Manel Valero. A Barcelona native, Valero is an alum of the now-defunct Foodbar Dada, Moosehead and Kilo and he spent four months staging in Europe – at restaurants including Maaemo, Relae, Geranium and Amasse – before he returned to Singapore to join hands with wine industry veterans Ian Lim and Al Goh, both trained sommeliers with a combined experience of 20 years between them.

Leading the charge in the kitchen with the intention of creating dishes that go with natural wines, Valero has put together a spiffy menu of wallet-friendly and mostly vegetable-centric treats (there are some meaty exceptions like the Westholme wagyu striploin and beef tartare)- some light, others hearty, at times unctuous, yet others creamy.

Fermented potato focaccia bread Tempura of spring onions

Cream of leek

Burnt cabbage

For the perfect meal, order the fermented potato scented focaccia bread with a rustic dip of garlic and shallot confit topped with Spanish adobo (S$8++). Follow with quinoa-flecked sliced kohlrabi on a bed of tamarind paste, palm sugar, green chilli olive oil (S$6++). You also can’t go wrong with the hearty bowl of cream-enriched leek broth with pickled leeks and sea lettuces (S$9++ per person). Valero also serves stalks of vinegar ash-flecked spring onion tempura (S$12++), perfect to snack in between courses with copious amounts of wine . Beef is available by way of Westholme wagyu striploin ($51) but to keep the vege theme, enquire about the off-menu items like the caramelized cabbage served with toasted barley, nasturtium and oxalis in a creamy-savoury Idiazabal cheese sauce.