Selune opens in Bed Stuy

120 wines by the bottle and trays of icy oysters headline at this natural wine bar

Hello friends!

This week was a busy one – I finished reporting and writing a story on a startling and crippling rise of chargebacks plaguing restaurants over the past six months. Hoping we can get some legislation passed and more security features for these operators who are losing tens of thousands of dollars already this year. Read my story in Eater here.

Sharing a new restaurant opening for you today, this one a 50-seat natural wine and oyster bar in Bed-Stuy called Selune, which takes its name from a mashup of ‘salt’ and ‘moon’ in French. It opens today, Tuesday, June 17th at 478 Halsey St, and comes from Paris native Marc Lioussane (formerly of Eden Rock in St. Barths) and his business partner Bilen Gaga.

Marc has owned and operated several bars in Paris, first with the opening of natural wine bar Bistro Général, followed by Mabel, which helped usher in a renaissance of elevated cocktail appreciation in the city. Bilen is something of a star of fashion and styling, shaped by her Ethiopian roots.

Marc curated the wine list, which includes over 120 natural wines by the bottle, with an emphasis on varietals imported from France. I’m not a wine expert but I am interested in the mineral-driven Swick Wines Aligoté from the Willamette Valley 2023 and something called “You F&@k My Wine” 2024, a bold and expressive red from renowned winemaker Fabien Jouves. Okay, Fabien.

For snacking, there are oysters from Blue Point, Big Rocks, Beausoleil, Shigoku, and Kumamoto (all are offered at $1 each during Happy Hour), and French-inspired small plates like a scallop carpaccio, a snow crab salad with grapefruit, sardines from Brittany served with a compound seaweed butter, and the house signature – a Truffle Croque Monsieur, with Parisian ham under a bubbling quilt of aged comté and truffle sauce.

The wine bar is housed in a 100-year-old landmark building in Bed-Stuy that’s intimate and cozy with rough hewn exposed brick walls, a hand-stained walnut bar salvaged from the building’s previous tenants, caramel brown bar stools, sage green chairs, loads of lush potted greenery, and traditional Ethiopian artwork that pays tribute to Bilen’s heritage.

Check it out!

Selune is open Monday through Thursday 5pm to midnight, with extended hours until 1am on Fridays and Saturdays. Reservations are available via Resy. For more information, visit selune-bk.com and @selune_bedstuy.