To most of us, wine is delicious and, sometimes complex. It’s a vehicle used to celebrate a big moment (or elevate a boring Tuesday), connect with a new (or treasured favorite) grapes (or regions). It’s something we use to pair with food (or the people we’re spending time with).
If we’re really feeling profound and poetic at that particular moment, wine might be something that links us to a shared human story, told across millennia and all of the continents in the world.
But even at our most profound, most of us can’t approach the deep and vast ocean of knowledge and inquiry that Jill Weber regularly plumbs.
For food and wine nerds, Weber is most known for her brilliant wine bars in Philadelphia. She opened Jet Wine Bar first in 2010, with a decidedly puckish approach to hospitality.
It was purposefully, Weber tells me, designed to be a “fun, quirky, casual spot for fans of wine from around the world.”
Jet Bar’s offerings have always been focused on grapes and regions that are off-the-beaten-path.
“I wanted to introduce Philly to all the fun and fantastic wines the world has to offer that do (did) not get any recognition,” Weber says.
Mission, successful. The relaxed, funky-fun, nerdy-colorful Jet offers wallet-friendly wines that you might not find anywhere else. The vibe is social, chatty and fun. And yes, there is plenty of geekery tying the wine choices to the ephemera of our origins.
“There is always a story, whether it’s the nearest fossil to the vineyard, or the connection to the Odyssey,” Weber admits.
Rex at the Royal came next, originally opened as Rex 1516. In its current iteration, Rex is perched at the old Royal Theater, and has become one of the best places in Philly for low country cuisine.
Elegant, historical, but soulful—with a mad-tasty cocktail list. Wines are American (from all over!) Think Bonny Doon, then House of Brown.
The youngest child in Weber’s lineup is characteristically distinct: Sor Ynez is a full-service Mexican restaurant, heritage-style, with a patio open for salsa and bachata dancing.
Laid-back, creative, playful. But rooted in heritage and tradition. Mezcal is what to order, unless you want a margarita—or a wine from the Spanish speaking world.
Very Different Children, Same Mama (Archeology)
All very different, infused with charm and distinction. Credit for the unique voice, and delectable wine list at each place, must go to roots in archeology.
Weber says she first delved into the study of human prehistory as an undergrad at Northwestern.
“A dig in Turkey with one of my professors solidified that profession as the perfect one for me,” Weber recalls. “I had always wanted to travel to parts unknown, and arrival in Istanbul as a 21-year-old with no travel experience was mind blowing in the best possible way. So much to see, hear, smell, taste… utter chaos in the streets. It was magical.”
On that trip, she encountered “real wine” for the first time, opening an entirely new avenue of inquiry for her.
“I saw a young couple having dinner on their balcony and enjoying a bottle of rosé,” Weber says. “I then sought out Turkish wine and mostly enjoyed it. There were, of course, some bad bottles, but many were good. Later, I would spend many a Friday in a beautiful square in Aleppo’s Armenian quarter sipping Lebanese wine and snacking on raw carrots.”
She went on to the University of Pennsylvania, where she received a PhD in anthropology, and graduated to work in Syria from 1995 until 2010, where she lived amid local families, joining them for tea, meals and milestone events.
Every time she came home to Philly, she’d share intel, and wine tips from her travels.
“I got a lot of scoffing that the Turkish or the non-Musar Lebanese wine could have been good,” Weber says. “My response was to open a wine bar.”
It also forced her to question her own pre-Turkey wine assumptions.
“I became actively interested in learning about the origins of wine, its spread, and the social and cultural conventions that gave rise to common myths about the inferiority of non-Western and non-Western heritage wines,” Weber says. “The notion that these wines couldn’t be good was – in my mind – strongly related to the conceit of the superiority of Western Civilization and its terroir.”
If a the career of an archeologist sounds solitary, it isn’t, Weber says. She loved working solo, but also within the welcoming, collaborative communities in which she landed. Selling and sharing wine is inherently social and collaborative. Which makes, in addition to the unique paradigm and vino intel gathered from obscure neighborhoods in the Middle East, her second career such a pleasure for herself and her many guests.
“One of the biggest surprises for me has been how much I enjoy interacting with customers,” Weber says. “I did open a wine bar for people with slightly different tastes and inquisitive minds, so I suppose the customer base was already for people I would want to talk to.”
Still, Weber is primarily focused on digging into her first love, far from Philly. (She is currently working in Iraq and Italy).
“I have others run the operations,” she says. “That is not my greatest skill. I am heavily involved in the wine selections, though, and I have monthly tastings at Jet.”
The next time you’re in Philly, you know where to go to travel the world through the glass.
Answering the skeptics by opening a whole bar around the wines they dismissed might be the most satisfying rebuttal in wine.
My hometown! She sounds super interesting!