18 November 2025
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Annie Shi’s incredibly personal Chinatown wine bar, Lei, is built on a throughline that won’t be found in any of the vinicultural canon.
As the restaurant’s diverse Chinese dishes start crowding the table – an omelet studded with white jade radish, a sweet and sour beef short rib – there’s no pushing for a plate-by-plate pairing. Chinese food, Shi knows, is meant to come family style, and diners want a bottle that goes well with it all.
So the match comes through in pairings strong on personality, with food and wine that knows where it’s from.
“We're looking for inspiration and harmony in dishes that draw on memories as well as what we like to eat, as that often lets wines really show their true selves,” Shi says.
The winner of this year’s MICHELIN Guide Northeast Cities Sommelier Award, presented by Franciacorta, Shi’s built a wine bar with a front and center sense of place.
“It feels like I’ve been collecting taste memories my entire life for Lei,” she says.
Growing up, her mother cooked a Chinese meal every night for dinner. She spent much of her childhood between the historic enclaves of Flushing and Chinatown. Almost every summer meant a trip to see family in China.
The short rib, on the menu since Lei opened in June, is an emblematic example of a distinctive dish with a wide wine appeal.
“It is a classic Shanghainese dish and one of the few things my father would cook in the kitchen growing up. My dad has a very Shanghainese cooking mantra – every time you think there is enough sugar in a dish, add another spoonful. But white sugar can leave a cloying taste in your mouth and tends to strip wine of fruit and balance,” Shi says.
The restaurant’s response, from Chef Patty Lee in the kitchen, was to introduce sweetness through a homemade fruit jam.
“The substitution allows for so much more complexity in flavor and really allows a range of red wines to sing,” Shi says.
Shi got serious about wines at her restaurant King, in Soho, which she owns alongside two chefs (the trio is also behind Jupiter in Rockefeller Center). All non-food responsibilities became her domain, and in wine, she found the most joy.
“I threw myself into it, tasting every single day with multiple distributors, reading wine books at night when I got home, and turning around and selling those same wines on the floor the next day. It was thrilling and has been a continual pursuit,” she says.
At Lei, with wine director Matt Turner, Shi is aiming to persuade guests that it’s okay to go for the whole bottle – a step outside the by-the-glass comfort zone makes the wine taste all the better.
“The way it smells and tastes when first opened is likely going to be quite different from how it smells and tastes at the end – by pulling the cork at the outset, you're given a much more intimate and complete experience,” she says.
To make that goal accessible to guests, Lei and Turner look for lesser known producers like a diamond in the rough. That could mean newcomers to stalwart regions like Bordeaux and Burgundy or winemakers from undertapped locales, like in Greece and China.
“I will always love wine because it keeps you on your toes – every vintage, every plot, every barrel brings something different,” Shi says. “It is impossible to know everything there is to know; and for a control freak like me, it gives me peace that there can be no real mastery of it, just appreciation.”
Hero image: ©Matt Russell/Lei - Annie Shi
