Have & Meyer has been doing one specific thing since 2015: Italian natural wine, serious food, small room, no pretension about any of it. The list is the point — over a hundred bottles, nearly all Italian, every one poured by the glass. That's an irrational policy and the best possible reason to go.
The Vibe
Very narrow, very dark. Exposed brick lined with wine bottles, old photographs, fairy lights, mismatched glassware at every table. A marble-topped bar anchors the back; a taxidermied boar's head watches over the room — a nod to the Tuscan butteri, the cattle-herding cowboys the place quietly venerates. On a Tuesday at 7, it's quiet enough to actually talk. Friday past 9, the music climbs and so does the volume of everyone compensating for it. The staff is Italian, the pace is Italian, the whole thing leans toward the kind of wine bar you stumble into in Milan and spend three hours in.
What to Order
- Cacio e pepe gnocchi — the dish the kitchen does best, the one worth ordering before you've looked at anything else.
- Cold cuts, shaved to order — a 1920s Berkel slicer lives at the bar for a reason. Start here with whatever the server recommends alongside a glass of orange wine.
- The pappardelle ragu — fine, but inconsistent; the pasta can arrive with more tomato than meat. If the gnocchi is on, get that instead.
When to Come
Tuesday or Wednesday, before 8pm — the room is intimate in a way that Friday simply isn't. Book through OpenTable; it fills. Ask for two seats at the bar if you want to watch the Berkel in action. Note that special-pour pricing isn't always listed — ask before you order.
The Bottom Line
The wine list alone is worth the trip to Williamsburg; everything else — the room, the charcuterie, the staff — is good enough to make a full night of it.