Small Portions With Wine to Match

ON the New York dining scene, small plates — tapas, half portions, after-theater snacks — are so well established as to be a cliché. In New Jersey, not so much. We like value for money over here: three courses in ample portions, with time to linger over dessert and a double espresso.

Anthony Pino was taking a bold step, then, when he sank $600,000 into a dank and grimy space that had been a longshoremen’s bar in Hoboken’s north end. He gutted it and transformed it into a bright, cheery room with a contemporary and communal feel and reopened it 11 months ago as a trattoria and wine bar called Bin 14. No longshoreman portions here: even the entrees are called “mezza” (for half), and four-fifths of the dishes are appetizer-scale in both size and price.

No lingering, either: when you make a reservation you’ll be told, cheerfully but firmly, that you’ll have your table for just 90 minutes or so. Coffee and dessert aren’t even served.

Fortunately, Mr. Pino, 39, also the chef and owner of the nearby (and more traditional) Dining Room at Anthony David’s, has a pitch-perfect ear for his hometown. The young north end professionals who populate the barstools and distressed-wood tables at Bin 14 are the ideal demographic for a place like this: sophisticated eaters who like designing their own meals, passing their dishes around and, not incidentally, pairing them with wine.

The wine is as central to Bin 14 as the food. The list runs to 100 bottles (and growing), ranging over the viticultural world, from the Finger Lakes to Sicily to New Zealand. Just as important, much of it can be sampled in two-ounce pours, at $3 to $13.

Put yourself in the hands of one of the young, hip and well-schooled servers and you’ll learn why the floral, slightly fizzy 2008 Gurrutxaga rosé from the Basque region of Spain is a great match for bruschetta topped with fragrant sweet-pea-and-mint purée.

The rosé was a bit too flowery? No worries: you invested only $6, and perhaps you’ll find that your next choice, a dense, cherry-scented Argentina malbec from Luigi Bosca ($5 for two ounces), is just right for the fine, blister-crusted eight-inch pizza with peppery cacciatorino sausage, arugula and mozzarella (a steal at $9). Or a balanced, fruity California cabernet from C&T Cellars ($7), paired with fabulously tender grill-blackened octopus ($9). As a server advised us, “there are no rules.”

In two brief but intensely pleasurable visits to Bin 14, there was hardly a dish or a wine we didn’t enjoy. Even though the mushroom risotto was salty and undercooked, and hanger steak was served bloody rather than medium-rare as ordered, two other mezza entrees, both from a blackboard of daily specials, were refined and superb: three good-size diver scallops in a voluptuous brandy-cream sauce, and pork tenderloin with top-of-the-season peach sections wrapped in prosciutto.

Every single bruschetta ($3 to $6) was terrific — three-inch-long ovals of grilled Italian bread from a local bakery with beautifully conceived toppings like roasted eggplant with cherries and Parmesan; tuna tartare with jalapeño, basil and scallions; and broccoli rabe with roasted garlic. Together on a plate, they were Expressionist art — luckily, not too pretty to eat.

In the same spirit, we loved the two pizzas we tried, the cacciatorino and one with an autumnal medley of figs, prosciutto and ricotta. From a list of “sharing plates,” the standouts included homemade lamb sausage, bursting with lamb flavor and spicy with peperonata, and first-rate fries whose vivid potato character was made even more so with dustings of pecorino cheese and chili powder.

Cheeses and cured meats are listed first on the menu, but we ordered a plate of seven Italian cheeses — $25, lovingly handled, and ample for four people — as a final course. (If we hadn’t been driving home, we’d have paired them with ruby port and a late-harvest sauvignon blanc from Chile.) Didn’t someone say there are no rules?

Bin 14

1314 Washington Street

Hoboken

(201) 963-9463

bin14.com

EXCELLENT

THE SPACE A handsome, airy 42-seat room, with exposed brick, weathered wood and floor-to-ceiling windows. Wheelchair accessible.

THE CROWD Dare we say it: young urban professionals. They can make a lot of noise.

THE STAFF Friendly, knowledgeable and comfortable with the fast pace.

THE BAR Long and lively — like the wine list.

THE BILL Small plates, $3 to $11; downsized entrees, $12 to $15. American Express, MasterCard and Visa accepted.

WHAT WE LIKED Cheese plate, arugula salad, lamb sausage, grilled octopus, fries with pecorino and chili; all bruschettas and pizzas, scallops, pork tenderloin.

IF YOU GO Open daily. Lunch: Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Dinner: Sunday through Thursday, 5 to 10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, 5 to 11 p.m., with casual fare until 1:30 a.m. Brunch: Saturday and Sunday, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Reservations recommended. Street parking is limited; the nearest lot is at 15th & Garden Streets.