Having featured Oxford wine bar Bottega in The Oxford Times when it opened in March, it seemed a good time to pop back to see how it was getting along. Unfortunately, the cafe in Walton Street does not yet open at lunchtime, though co-founder Chris Murray told me they were hoping to expand the opening hours in September, when everyone is back from holiday.

He started the venture earlier this year with his Italian friend Maurizio Luci, 32, in premises previously used by Uddins, an Indian restaurant which seemed to have been there for ever.

The shop is one of several which have been reprieved from demolition, but are still likely to be transformed by developers in the next few years. In the meantime, this little section of Walton Street has taken on a bohemian feel, helped by two new bookshops, including the eclectic Albion Beatnik, which has a cafe open late at weekends.

From the outside, Bottega looks a little like the antiques shop next door. The Indian restaurant's flock wallpaper and quiet cubbyholes have gone and the new decor could kindly be described as 'shabby chic'.

The exposed walls and eclectic furnishings are certainly a point of differentiation, and a subject for lively conversation, particularly if your guests find 'distressing' distressing.

We looked around for somewhere to sit. There was plenty of space, with only one table taken. We could choose between a couple of barrels, comfy black sofas round the back, or some benches and tables at the front.

As we sat down, my friend Stuart said to his partner: "You wanted a new dining table. How about one like this?"

This was, in fact, an old door — not a posh front door, but the sort you might find leading to a back yard, complete with two gaps in the shape of keyholes. Painted white, it served pretty well as a table.

There is a large selection of wines — not just Italian and Sicilian but French, Spanish and New World. There are just over a dozen reds and whites to choose from, along with a handful of sparkling wines and champagne. We plumped for a Rioja Tempranillo, which was one of the cheapest, but had a good sharp taste.

This is not a place for a meal, and the menu at the moment is small. There are two or three cheeses on offer and salami, proscuitto and chorizo. You can order each cheese and charcuterie separately, but we plumped for a large platter to share, which caused an anxious frown from my vegetarian friend Kate.

But she relaxed when the platter arrived with the meat several centimetres away from the cheese, and plenty of olives, humous and pitta bread.

The cheese was fine — including a good Manchego — and it was reassuring in a way that there was a different selection to the list printed on the menu. You felt that they had bought what was good at the market that day.

It was all OK as a pre-dinner snack, but better bread would have transformed it into a fine experience. It was a particular shame that the pitta bread tasted stale, because it's easy to freshen up in a toaster.

By the time we left, just after 8pm, the place was filling up, but it will probably take a while before it becomes as bustling as the Summertown Wine Cafe, which has made a major success of a similar idea.

Bottega is open until 2am on Friday and Saturday, so is obviously tapping into the "24-hour city". The pavement opposite was full of Raoul's clientele, although to me they seemed a bit different to Bottega's customers — the younger cocktail-bar set, rather than older people trying to be hip.

Like the rest of Oxford, Walton Street attracts a mix of ages and types, but with the Phoenix cinema and the influx of brasserie restaurants, I would have thought there was a gap for a quieter after-work meeting place.

If you want something with a bit more 'night out' atmosphere than the Jericho cafe, but without the 'I'm going out to drink and have fun' threat (or if you're a real wine buff) then Bottega is definitely worth a try.

Mr Luci has no idea how long they will be allowed to continue their short-term lease, so you need to visit in the next few months to be sure it's still there.

But don't go with anyone who has conservative views on interior design, or they might have a big shock visiting the wood-panelled toilet, which is lined with unplaned timber. I'd never seen anything like it before, but I'm sure it's all the rage.