It was Hell today at the office. Yes, pour me a drink.                               Photo: Steven Richter

        Per Se’s wine director Andre Mack only had to walk a few blocks downtown to join Shelly Fireman’s team plotting a new 30 seat wine bar (plus tables) at an updated Red Eye Grill across from Carnegie Hall. Blueprints call for 135 wines by the glass, including a cut-rate Chardonnay and a pinot noir on tap in special barrels. Mack and Fireman are flying to California to work on the two custom blends with Jim Clendenen at Au Bon Climat.  A handful of seats at the sushi bar will be sacrificed and the lights lowered “to suit the wine bar sexuality,” Fireman says.  In true Red Eye spirit, the grill will stay open with construction crews arriving after hours to install the rehab “like a stage set.”  Hoped-for opening: Mid to late March.

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