Photo by Joseph A. Garcia / Star staff Ventura 05/09/2008: A big feature of The Cave is their Enomatic wine machine, which dispenses a certain amount of wine and deducts the cost from a prepaid card. The Cave, in Ventura, has two machines, one for serving chilled wines and another for serving wine at room temperature. This machine serves the wine at room temperature.

The ABC sandwich, which consists of hickory-smoked bacon, cheddar cheese and green apple on panini bread, is served at The Cave with homemade fresh potato chips.

Photos by Joseph A. Garcia / Star staff Stephanie Haney, of Ventura, is treated to an early Mother's Day lunch by her father, Pat Patterson, of Oxnard, at The Cave, in Ventura Wine Co.

Already the proprietor of a popular wine shop, aka Ventura Wine Co., Nick Fisher has turned his talents to a new challenge, the adjacent dining and sipping space, The Cave.

Combining an ancient carved-out-of-a-mountain atmosphere with the 21st-century technology of card-operated wine-tasting dispensers, Fisher has come up with an attractive concept that allows customers to do their own wine-tasting during shop hours, as well as "pour" themselves 1-ounce, 3-ounce or 5-ounce portions of a wide selection of wines.

Coupled with the unusual wine service is a handy, and for the most part dandy, menu of lunch items and small plates designed by chef Gary Daniel. On separate visits we tried both menus, lunch and small plates, plus a sampling of a total of six wines, all 3-oz. versions. It was a tale of many tastes, but most of all it was simply fun.

The process takes a little getting used to. At lunchtime, we were handed small menus and asked to order at one cash register for the food, and a nearby one for a wine card, if we desired. New to the process, we had to step aside to go over the menu and make our selections, which at a busier time — Fisher said there'd been overflow crowds on the weekend — might have caused some confusion. Then we picked up napkin-wrapped utensils and if we wanted, poured ourselves glasses of ice water and picked up items like packets of butter. On the quiet day of our first visit, the woman taking the orders was also happy to bring along water or utensils, or to bring anything we needed after we were seated.

The utensils I picked up at lunchtime were sturdy plastic, though at the small-plate hour they had morphed into more versatile metal versions. Those who intend to try out the wine-tasting dispensers, known as Enomatics ("eno" from the Latin for wine, the rest a portion of "automatic"), are also offered attractive rounded tumblers and given a lesson on the process: place card in the appropriate slot, touch a spot indicating the size of the pour over the selected bottle, and watch it deliver your wine.

Our lunch fare began with the Apple-Walnut Salad ($7), which we split after asking for a smaller plate to do our divide. It was a salad with lots of character, beginning with fresh greens and including green apples, candied walnuts, interesting grapes, red onion and gorgonzola cheese crumbles, all blended with a good balsamic vinaigrette.

Our ABC panini ($6), a tasty combination of hickory-smoked bacon, cheddar cheese and green apple, all pressed between two crispy discs of flatbread, also hit the spot. The KISS sandwich ($7) really does keep it simple, with a choice of roast beef, turkey or ham, mozzarella or Cheddar cheese, romaine, tomato, red onion, mayo and mustard on either focaccia or wheat berry bread. We ordered ours with beef and mozzarella on focaccia, with the mayo and mustard on the side. It was a huge mouthful and may be more easily handled on the wheat berry bread. The beef was thin-sliced, deli-style, without a dominant beef flavor, but the combination worked well. We passed on the mayo but liked the strong, grainy mustard.

At the Enomatic machines we stopped first at the smaller white-wine version and made modest choices, 3 ounces of a light white Magito 2006, a Nick's Pick for summer sipping, and Butterfield Station 2006 chardonnay. Over at the larger red-wine circle we loved our choice of Beckman 2006 Cuvee Le Bec, Santa Ynez Valley, a combination of 50 percent grenache, 28 syrah, 5 mourvedre and 7 counoise. On our small-plate visit, we served ourselves Makor 2007 pinot blanc, Simi 2004 cabernet and Chalone 2006 pinot noir, all under $5 per three-ounce glass. There are finer wines available, and the selection will change periodically. Oh yes, to help keep your choices within your budget, the price of the desired amount flashes as you prepare to touch-order it.

While we found the lunch items satisfying, we were delighted with the flavor and quality of the small "plates," ordered off a chalkboard about 10 feet from the cash register.

The items may change frequently, so it's not handy for The Cave to print out the small-plate menu. But on a busy day, those who can't make their way quickly through the posted menu might cause a slowdown. It took us a while, though there were no hungry folks behind us at the early small-plate hour. Even with time to spare, we weren't sure exactly how much each item was, though we were most happy fellas over the results: onion-blue cheese soup, filet mignon ($9), shrimp and mussel risotto, and pan-fried garlic scallops ($8).

The thin filet was exceptionally tender, with an excellent rim of gravy around purple mashed potatoes. A few green beans and a sprig of herb completed the presentation. Equally delicious was the shrimp and mussel risotto, with a lively pomodoro (tomato) sauce stirred in. The seafood was perfectly prepared and the risotto and sauce flavors were wonderful.

Wine turned up in the description of several of the sauces when we stopped by the open kitchen to get a few details from the cook. The soup wasn't in any sense a traditional onion soup, but had tempting blue cheese flavor and was very pleasant. Finally, we ordered the scallops just because everything else had been so good and were equally pleased with the tender shellfish and well-blended flavors.

We made meals out of both of our stops at The Cave, but it's entirely possible to simply sample the food along with the wine, or even without wine, as other beverages are available. There are cheese plates, pizzas, relishes and basic bread among other small plates available, and lots more salads, paninis and sandwiches offered.

Our results: food bills at each stop around $30 for two; wine tasting under $15; the experience, priceless.

— Rita Moran visits restaurants unannounced and pays for her food. If you know of a new, unusual or just plain good restaurant, please contact her at ritamoran@earthlink.com.