Sip and savor at DECANTsf, the 'LGBTQIA+ Venue of the Year'

SAN FRANCISCO -- DECANTsf's bright and bottle-filled environment encourages visitors to sip, savor, and learn something new. Don't take our word for it - you'll have to "drink for yourself."

"Our sort of motto that we live by is drink for yourself," said Simi Grewal, the co-founder of DECANTsf. "This idea of drink for yourself is how we provide you, our guests, with tools and knowledge so that you can start to identify the things you love."

Grewal added, "Every time I see someone communicate about wine with confidence after they've been in here, I feel really happy because that means we're doing our jobs properly."

Grewal and co-founder Cara Patricia blind taste all bottles to evaluate what makes each wine unique, so they can better teach guests about what's in their glass. For the founding duo, educational events are an important part of the business.

"We have a great series called SCHOOL of DECANT, focusing on a topic almost classroom or lecture style," explained Grewal. "We might be tasting 6, 7, 8 wines sometimes from a particular region or from a particular winemaker, and maybe we'll have that importer here or the winemaker here to help us teach the class."

"We also do a lot of pop-ups with local chefs, local artists," said Patricia. "We even recently started taking people to wine country, to show them the insider sommelier's view of wine country that a non-wine professional is not going to experience."

It's all part of Grewal and Patricia's quest for guests to click and connect with what's in the glass, as well as connect with one another.

DECANTsf has been named 'LGBTQIA+ Venue of the Year' by Bar & Restaurant Industry Excellence Awards. They hope their spot provides the community with a space to belong.

"Having Queer businesses, having spaces that reflect diverse values, whether you're Queer or not, is going to create a more rich environment, a more rich city in all different ways," described Patricia. "Supporting Queer-owned businesses is just helping your community become more culturally important, culturally significant, and really giving people a space to belong.

For more information, visit here and follow @decantsanfrancisco on Instagram.