If Ballard Avenue were a home, it would have a noisy kitchen (La Carta de Oaxaca), a civilized dining room (Volterra), an altogether unsupervised garage apartment (Tractor Tavern, Hattie’s Hat)—and a tranquil wine cellar for the grown-ups. That’s Portalis: sheathed in warm vintage brick and laden with well-chosen vintages, for sale by the bottle or the glass to quaff at the bar or at a table up front. The place purveys simple noshes, from an elegant little cheese-and-fig ensemble to a bracing garbanzo bean-and-English pea salad frisky with herbs or an onion-and-anchovy pissaladière—the special when the spotlight region was Provence—thoughtfully matched with a gentle Gigondas rosé. These pairings are masterminded by proprietors who may know a lot more about wine than you do but wouldn’t dream of acting like it.