Star Wine List profiles sommelier Tira Johnson, who has just claimed the guide’s Best Newcomer award for the second year running—this time for curating the adventurous, value-minded wine program at Chez Fifi, a cozy Upper East Side townhouse bistro opened in December 2024 by the team behind Sushi Noz and dedicated to the owners’ late, francophile mother. Johnson, previously honored for Ilis in Brooklyn, describes the 12-table restaurant as warm and family-style, with French-Basque-inflected comfort food served amid personal artwork and pink accents that evoke Fifi’s spirit. Her list favors French, Spanish and American producers, balancing classic labels and up-and-coming names (including aged Loire reds under $150) to entice both neighborhood regulars and deep-pocketed collectors who might casually order a 1991 La Tâche on a Tuesday night. The San Francisco native, who cut her teeth in Bay Area and New York dining rooms before steering openings for Noma co-founder Mads Refslund, says the success of Chez Fifi is helping redefine the Upper East Side’s culinary reputation—and hints she could chase a third Best Newcomer title with the group’s forthcoming Miami project.