Aperitivo

I think that apertivo is a solid ⁵⁄₅ if you are looking at it as a wine bar and not as a restaurant– however what tips it over is that it is also easy to get good food from around the market and enjoy it here.
We came in here on a Saturday and sat at the bar (although had Michigan graced us with normal may weather we would have enjoyed the outside patio area which is killer in the summer).
The bartender was very helpful and gave my wife some good ideas on sparkling rose to try. I ended up ordering a cocktail that was called the Barcelona. It had a great taste and had an olive in it which was fun to eat at the end.
For snacks we ordered a great liver mouse pâté that was served with a variety of potato chips and breads. The chip — pâté combo was fantastic!

Aperitivo is a wine, cider and beer bar that offers cheeses, meats, and a variety of kitchen items and specialty grocery items (like a smaller Art of the Table, their sister store).
The wine list is small but thoughtfully curated. I tried an Austrian white, which was crisp and dry. The girl working at the counter was very helpful and asked what types of wines we like and gave us the suggestion. She was helpful throughout our visit, asking how we liked our food and checking if we needed anything. They have a large beer list as well as several offerings in bottles, along with hard cider on tap. Plenty of options for everyone!
The Aperitivo menu includes cheese/​meat plates, snacks, crostini and a couple sandwiches, including a rotating specialty grilled cheese. I ordered the Monger’s Choice, a charcuterie and cheese board with 3 kinds of cheese and 2 meats with accompaniments. My friend ordered the Monger’s Choice as well, and they made sure to include different items on each board so we could try a little of everything. My board had a local chevre, a blue cheese and a hard white cheese. We also got some duck prosciutto and a salami. The accoutrements included Field and Fire breads, honey and figs (which were amazing with the blue cheese), passionfruit spread, little peppers, cornichons, mustard, olives, and pickled garlic. It was fun to come up with combinations of different spreads and cheeses/​meats to see what worked best. They ask your tastes before making the board, so if you hate blue cheese, just let them know! I split the board with my boyfriend and it was good for a snack, if I wanted more of a meal I would have gotten it just for myself.
The only downside of Aperitivo is that it’s cost-​prohibitive for me to go very often (For a glass of wine, the Monger’s Choice, and 2 beers we spent $ 75).

I shop here regularly not for the cheese, which I understand to be the main draw, but for the meat. They have a decidedly small but very well curated selection of cured meats. In particular, there are two items I buy there almost every visit.
One is the duck prosciutto from Smoking Goose out of Indiana. It may well be available elsewhere in the area, but I don’t recall seeing it. At $ 40 a pound, it is quite expensive. But understand that a little bit goes a long way, and 36 slices (which I consider two servings) usually weighs in at less than 0.2 lbs, so it isn’t a terribly expensive indulgence. I will say that the duck bacon made by Biercamp in Ann Arbor is not only cheaper, but quite a bit better (except for those unfortunate but rare occasions when they make a batch that is abusively salty). But as far as cured duck products go in Grand Rapids, this is about as good as it gets.
The other is the Calabrese salami from Salume Beddu in St Louis. Salume Beddu has previously been recognized as making the best salami in the country by Forbes. And while their very best products are available in-​house only, a few of their hard salamis are sold in other retail outlets, albeit mostly in the St Louis area. But the owner of Aperitivo is a St Louis native, and thus made a point of being the only retailer in Michigan to carry three different pre-​packaged salamis from them (of which the Calabrese is decidedly best). At $ 11 for a six ounce package, prices seem quite high. Though as anybody who has visited their shop in St Louis can attest, everything Salume Beddu makes is quite pricey, so relatively little of the price can be attributed to excessive local markup.
There is one reason though that I give this shop four stars instead of five — basic customer service issues. Hard salami is, as the name suggests — quite hard, and therefore not fun to try slicing without the aid of something like a professional meat slicer. And yet, they refuse to slice my Calabrese for me. I understand that as a pre-​packaged good they’ll only sell whole salamis, which is fine because I don’t want to buy less than six ounces. However, I’d like to have it properly sliced so that I don’t almost take off a finger doing it myself at home. Inexplicably, they refuse to do this.

Our community is so lucky to have such an amazing cheese shop/​wine bar/​eatery packed with carefully selected food and drink. Staff is knowledgeable, friendly and super accommodating. (Even when we bring the little ones.) It’s our favorite weekend spot.

Absolutely awful customer service. Market was empty today at 4pm when we arrived. We ordered drinks and a charcuterie board. Waited almost 20 minutes for the drinks and even longer for the board. They were incredibly rude and unapologetic, even though we were their only customers at the time. Awful experience. Won’t be giving them any more business. Drinks and food were great, but at 25 bucks, I’m shocked at how little the board actually contained. I believe in spending good money for good food, but when it comes with awful service, it’s not worth half the price. Staff — treat your customer like human beings. Probably a good place to start in the customer service industry. 2 stars because the quality of the food was great. Only 2 stars because every other part of the experience was lacking.

Who gets a lil tipsy at the farmers market? We do. Hehe. My two girlfriends and I spent a few hours at the outdoor patio.
The wine
The weather was perfect. Our waiter was friendly and made wonderful suggestions that complimented all three of my friends wine palates. We each ordered a glass of wine and then ordered a bottle to polish off our our conversation. (Cheaper to split a bottle).
The appetizer
For $ 25 for the meat and cheese dish, I thought we would get a lot more. Especially since one of the meats was a fancy «bologna.» There was a pea sized drop of whole grain mustard, three tiny figs drizzled with honey, salami (with spice) and three different types of cheese. I loved the cheese assortment, but I wasn’t impressed with anything else.
I would go back to Apertivo for the wine and cheese. But I would probably wait and order a meat and cheese plate from the reserve in downtown GR. t

I’ve been achy for a place that reminds me of Wine + Beer at the Santa Barbara Public Market so Aperitivo was the first stop on my list of places to try at the Downtown Public Market.
We started off sampling a Gouda cheese before heading over to the bar area to order a charcuterie plate with prosciutto, salami, olives, cornichons, mustard, bread from Field & Fire, a cremy brie, figs with honey, candied onions, Rouge River bleu cheese, and Parmigiano-​Reggiano.
For wines we started off with a white cuvée and ended with a syrah/​grenache blend from Spain.
The selections change regularly so be sure to get the details on the offerings from your server.
OTHER
The place is tiny so it may be hard to get a seat, especially on the weekend. Be patient, it’s totally worth the wait.
Beers are offered as well.
Though they are limited on space and didn’t have as many wine selections as I would have hoped for, they are doing their best to offer a varied selection from all over the world. They also sell accessories and tools for serving meats and cheeses and entertaining, as well. Many bottles are between the $ 20.00-$ 35.00 range.
Great selection of sparkling wines/​brut.

Not impressed
Management staff is rude. Ask about menu items and was basically to what you see is what you. Would not waste your time.

Its always been great food and fair selection of wine. However, my during my most recent visit I was treated quite rudely when my friend and I were sitting at the bar. I inquired about an alternative selection for the cheese on the cheese plate and was told very rudely, «no substitutions allowed.» I asked, «are you serious?» To which the woman (chef) behind the bar replied, «I work really hard on the menu, so you can only choose one of those options.» I wasn’t that upset that I could not substitute a cheese selection, but the tone at which I was spoken to was incredibly rude. And it was rather contradictory since the chef was just working on a non-​menu item for one of her family members who was sitting outside.
Our server was outstanding and I feel bad that I had that encounter with the chef, because I believe my experience would have been quite good without that. Based on that interaction, I will not return or support appertivo in the future. I’d rather go to the Grove or Green Well, where they actually respect their customers and are quite accommodating and helpful… and substitutions are not a problem.

Grand Rapids is a great stop if you’re traveling through Michigan, or in the upper midwest. Aperitivo is yet another reason to make the trek into town.
The market that opened here in 2013 is a Seattle Pike Market concept, with vendors who sell pies, meat, fish, some produce (I’m hoping more in the future), hand-​made pastas, and syrups. Aperitivo is a cheese and charcuterie shop with a counter for sandwiches and other cheesy delights. I stopped in to pick up a few things for New Years. The selection is amazing – a full counter of cheese from the US and places like France, Germany, Italy, and Holland. We picked up a midwestern cheese, some brie-​type cheese, and an aged Gouda, which looks a lot more like parmesan. We also scored a bottle of rose cava, and some crackers. Being accustomed to Chicago prices, I was delighted to pay substantially less (like 25−40% less) than I would back home.
Staff is knowledgeable and extremely helpful. They let you try everything, and make suggestions to round out your purchases.

This is a great, and my favorite, shop in the new Grand Rapids Downtown Market. They have a wide variety of cheeses and meats. The people behind the counter know what they are talking about. Feel free to ask all the questions you want, along with samples. Behind the cheese counter is a great little bar to get a drink and some snacks. They have a nice simple selection of wine and beer as well as the cheeses and other items you saw out front. I can’t wait to go back.