House-made meatballs with marinara at Porta'Vino at 7800 Washington Ave. Photo: Dave Rossman/Contributor Photo: Dave Rossman/Contributor

There are a lot of things you won’t see at Porta’Vino, the new wine-friendly restaurant on the uppermost stretch of Washington. You won’t encounter a stuffy wine sommelier or any oenophelic pretensions. No white tablecloths. No entrée over $30.

What you will see is a refreshing stab at redefining Houston’s limited BYO restaurant landscape -- a casual joint with an accomplished, gutsy menu, fair corkage policy, and a limited wine inventory (in case you don’t care to lug your own bottles) with desirable labels at, or in some cases below, retail cost.

For wine lovers, Porta’Vino is an answered prayer. For proprietor Bill Floyd, it’s a restaurant he’s been eager to create for years. Having stepped away from his duties at the spare-no-expense Potente, the longtime Houston restaurateur has fashioned the type of restaurant he thinks is underserved in the Houston market – an unfussy BYO den like the former La Vista in Briargrove where he was a regular for years.

As luck would have it, La Vista’s former chef/owner Greg Gordon is in the kitchen, lending the operation a bit of old-home-week status.

Porta’Vino, however, is very much a new take on an old idea, crystallized by Floyd’s specific notions of what a good BYO restaurant should be.

“I wanted a place where you could chill out and enjoy a $450 bottle of wine or a $9 yellowtail with no sommelier looking down his nose,” said Floyd, who separated from his partnership with the now-shuttered Reef and El Real Tex-Mex Café but still owns Jackson Street BBQ and Monarch Hospitality.

He also wanted to create a niche: “BYOB is that niche,” he said. “I think I can do it better than anyone competitively. I feel incredibly confident about that.”

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Maybe he’s onto something. Porta’Vino (“bring wine” in Italian) has been packed since it opened only a week ago, filling its 100 seats nightly with people who like to bring wine.

The corkage policy here is simple: $12 for first bottle, $11 for second, $10 for third and decreasing with each bottle. Corkage for beer is $1 per bottle; no hard liquor is allowed. There is no corkage fee for wine purchased at Porta’Vino, and those wines – about 10 whites, a dozen reds, and two bubbles – are a bargain: Cakebread chardonnay for $42; Far Niente chardonnay for $44; Duckhorn merlot for $40; Jordan cabernet for $49; Moet Brut Imperial for $39.

Those wine pair nicely with Gordon’s lusty menu. Working with Potente’s executive chef Danny Trace (who Floyd installed to oversee the menu), Gordon is sending out dishes that he says are not La Vista, but represent an evolution of his culinary career. Gordon jokes that he “spent 20 years living in a cave on Fountain View,” and now that La Vista and his follow-up La Vista 101 are closed, he’s experiencing a newfound freedom.

The Italian-inspired menu includes starters such as cornflake-crusted fried calamari with pepperoncini and Calabrese remoulade; crispy shrimp and andouille sausage with Calabrian chili oil; house-made meatballs with marinara; and roasted marrow bones filled with a piping of smoked marrow mashed with mascarpone and burrata cheese and served with bacon marmalade and grilled focaccia. There are salads (iceberg with blue cheese, Caesar with anchovy dressing, and greens tossed with mozzarella, strawberries and candied pecans) and pizzas (basil and mozzarella, pepperoni with sausage, beef and mushrooms, and spicy shrimp and peppers pie).

Gordon is making his own breads and pastas. The pasta lineup includes spaghetti with shrimp, mussels and olives in a spicy marinara; lasagna made with smoked brisket; spaghetti with meatballs; pappardelle with mushrooms and wild boar Bolognese; smoked brisket filled pasta triangles glossed with charred corn cream; and pasta primavera with herbs, local olive oil and seasonal vegetables.

The mains are a hearty lineup: Brined and smoked pork chip with grilled vegetables and black peppercorn mashed potatoes; shrimp and grits (grilled prosciutto-wrapped shrimp on sage polenta with Grand Marnier sauce); citrus grilled salmon; sea bass with blistered tomatoes and lemon beurre blanc; roasted chicken with whipped white beans; boneless braised short ribs with whipped white beans; and grilled ribeye cap steak with house-made Worcestershire sauce and black peppercorn mashed potatoes.

Desserts include Gordon’s coconut cream pie, a molten brownie with vanilla ice cream, and ice cream with salted caramel, peanuts and Poppycock.

“It’s me, but with a combination of the things I’ve learned with Floyd,” Gordon said. “It’s rustic but refined.”

His dishes play out against a simple setting of a reclaimed warehouse space with 19-foot ceilings. The look is industrial with a DYI vibe: tabletops decorated with wine labels, service areas decorated with wine crates, modest metal chairs, white shiplap walls and whitewashed cinderblock. Don’t expect expensive, fragile stemware. There’s one solid wine glass for both whites and reds, a champagne flute, and pub pint glasses for water. It’s as if Floyd wanted to blow out any and all affectations that come with drinking good wine, whether it came from a longtime aficionado like him or you toted it yourself.

Floyd isn’t done yet. Soon he’s opening a patio with additional 60 seats. He’s also converting an old barn within cork-throwing distance of Porta’Vino into a silo-like lair for cocktails and light snacks from the restaurant’s kitchen. The speakeasy-style bar, which will bow in about eight months, can be its own destination or serve as a pre- or post-Porta-Vino experience.

Porta’Vino, 7800 Washington, 713-360-7480; portavinohouston.com. Open daily 5 to 10 p.m.

Greg Morago writes about food for the Houston Chronicle. Follow him on Facebook or Twitter. Send him news tips at greg.morago@chron.com. Hear him on our BBQ State of Mind podcast to learn about Houston and Texas barbecue culture.