"Capitola is a world-renowned destination," Sam Miller told Edible Monterey Bay last summer, explaining why he was opening a second Rexford Wines tasting room two towns away from his original spot on the Santa Cruz Westside. He wasn't wrong about the destination part. What he was describing, without quite naming it, was a gap that had just opened up in the village's evening routine and that three different business owners decided to fill within months of each other.
For nearly two decades, if you wanted a glass of wine after dinner in Capitola Village, there was one place everybody meant when they said "the wine bar." It opened in 2006 as Cava Wine Bar, changed hands in July 2017 under new owners Doug and Ann Marie, and was rebranded Capitola Wine Bar & Merchants in May 2018. That six-year run under Doug and Ann Marie ended in 2025 when the owners moved away, closing the only wine bar the village had known for a generation of visits.
What replaced it wasn't a replacement. It was three.
The Same Address, a Different Bar
The most direct successor moved into the exact room the old wine bar left behind. John Haffey and Ryan Cooley, two sommeliers from the double Michelin-starred Aubergine in Carmel, took over the space at 115 San Jose Avenue and opened Vin Vivant in mid-August 2025, as Lookout Santa Cruz reported at the time. Haffey is a 2023 Michelin California Sommelier Award winner. Cooley managed the new bar day to day while Haffey stayed on at Aubergine.
They didn't walk in empty-handed. The two had spent more than two years quietly collecting bottles in anticipation of opening their own place, and within days of getting the keys they moved in close to a thousand of them, weighted toward Burgundy, Champagne, and Bordeaux alongside European and California producers. The current list runs past 350 labels, with something like 20 to 30 wines by the glass priced mostly between $10 and $14. That price point matters. A wine list built around serious Burgundy and Champagne could easily price out a casual Tuesday visit, but Vin Vivant kept the entry point close to what you'd pay at any other bar in the village, saving the depth for the bottle list. The room itself kept the plant wall and vintage art, added an ocean-view patio, and serves small bites like tomato milk bread with rosemary compound butter alongside local beer, cider, and sake.
The Winemaker's Room, Two Blocks Over
Walk from San Jose Avenue over to Capitola Avenue and you land at 309, next to La Marea Pizza & Bakery in a space that has cycled through a candle shop and, before that, what Miller is fairly sure was a laundromat based on the electrical panel he found behind the wall. This is Rexford Wines' second tasting room, and it's a different kind of bar entirely from Vin Vivant.
Rexford isn't a curated list of other people's wine. Sam Miller and his father Joe founded the winery in 2008, and the original tasting room has operated on the Santa Cruz Westside next to Java Bob's since May 2009. The Capitola room pours what the Millers make themselves, small-lot Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, and Merlot sourced from vineyards they've worked with directly. The centerpiece is a tasting bar built from reclaimed redwood and oak by Gregory Wood Work out of San Francisco, the same builder who made the bar for Rexford's earlier Carmel Valley location before that space closed during the pandemic. Sitting at the Capitola bar means talking to people who actually made what's in your glass, not a sommelier curating someone else's harvest.
Wine and Chocolate, Where the Old Bistro Used to Be
Next door at 312 Capitola Avenue, Suite B, is the third new arrival. Cocoa Vino is owned by Rodney Wartzock of Capitola Candy Company, and it does something neither of the other two attempts: it pairs high-end Napa and Paso Robles wine, along with a rotating selection of vintage Champagne, directly with housemade chocolate and charcuterie. The space used to be Cork and Fork, which didn't close so much as move a few blocks out of the village core to Clares Street near the Ross store. Cocoa Vino keeps shorter hours than the other two, open Wednesday through Sunday from 3 to 10 p.m. and closed Monday and Tuesday, and leans into a lounge identity with weekend live music, trivia nights, and bingo nights that raise money for local causes.
What Changed Isn't the Count, It's the Choice
Here's the detail worth sitting with. All three of these openings landed inside roughly the same twelve-month stretch of 2025, on two adjoining streets a few minutes' walk from Capitola Beach and Soquel Creek. That's not a village that slowly accumulated wine bars over a decade. That's a single wine bar closing and three specialized rooms opening in the vacuum it left, each built around something the other two aren't doing.
Spot | Address | What it's built around |
|---|---|---|
Vin Vivant | 115 San Jose Ave | Sommelier-curated European and California list, 350+ labels, $10 to $14 glass pours |
Rexford Wines | 309 Capitola Ave | Small-lot estate wines made by the Miller family since 2008 |
Cocoa Vino | 312 Capitola Ave, Ste B | Wine paired with chocolate and charcuterie, weekend live music |
Before 2025, picking a wine bar in Capitola Village wasn't really a decision. There was one, and you went or you didn't. Now the decision is about what kind of night you want. A serious bottle and a quiet conversation on an ocean-view patio points toward Vin Vivant. Wanting to talk to the person who actually grew the grapes points toward Rexford. A livelier evening with trivia or a chocolate pairing points toward Cocoa Vino. All three sit close enough together that trying two in one evening means parking once, not twice, which is closer to how the village has always worked. The David Lyng office in Capitola Village sits right in the middle of this same walkable stretch, which is a small but real reason the shift has been easy to watch unfold in real time.
None of this happened because Capitola Village got bigger. The same footprint that used to hold one generalist wine bar now holds three specialists, and the old bar's departure is what made room for the split. Capitola Wine Bar & Merchants covered a wide range, from local pours to live music and a full beer list, and the three rooms that followed each took one direction and built a whole identity around it.
If you've already made your way through all three, or you're still working out which one fits which kind of Friday, the team at David Lyng Real Estate would genuinely like to know. We spend enough time in Capitola Village to have opinions about which patio catches the best light at 6 p.m., and we're always glad to compare notes.