BB&T Charleston Wine + Food Festival

Sommelier and author David Lynch has added a new title to his ever-expanding résumé: restaurateur. His new tavern in San Francisco, St. Vincent, opens this spring on Valencia Street in the Mission District.

Named for the patron saint of vine-growers, St. Vincent is both a restaurant and wine shop, with an ever-changing list featuring 100 wines under $100. David draws inspiration from all over the world in making his wine selections, but Italy remains a first love — his award-winning book, Vino Italiano (Clarkson-Potter; 2002) remains the reference of choice for Italian wine aficionados. David is also the Contributing Wine Editor at Bon Appétit, where his “Wine Insider” column appears regularly.

David was most recently the Wine Director of San Francisco’s Michelin-starred Quince and its more casual sibling, Cotogna, and was featured on the cover of San Francisco Magazine in August 2011 as the magazine’s “Wine Director of the Year.” Prior to relocating to California in 2009, David was the longtime Wine Director, then General Manager, of New York’s famed Babbo Ristorante — the flagship restaurant of Mario Batali and Joseph Bastianich’s B&B Hospitality Group. During his tenure, he grew Babbo’s wine program into one of the nation’s best, winning a 2004 James Beard Restaurant Award for Outstanding Wine Service.

It was David’s collaboration with Bastianich on Vino Italiano that led to his joining the team at Babbo; previously he had been a magazine writer and a Senior Editor at Wine & Spirits magazine, where he won a James Beard Journalism Award for his writing. Having remained active as a journalist throughout his restaurant career, David’s writing has been seen not only in Bon Appétit but GQ, Food & Wine and many other publications. His second book with Bastianich, Vino Italiano Buying Guide, was revised and re-released in 2008, the same year that he released the satirical Wine Snob’s Dictionary (co-authored with Vanity Fair scribe David Kamp and published by Broadway Books).

David and his wife, Josie, have a five-year-old son, Ellis. They live in San Anselmo, CA.