On the night before Thanksgiving, Faubourg Wines was packed tighter than the bubbles under a Champagne cork.
Some people were snapping up Beaujolais for turkey day, others grabbed everyday rosé for the long weekend. Plenty also paused somewhere between rack and register to drink a glass of wine from the St. Claude Avenue shop’s in-house wine bar, talking with neighbors they bumped into there.
Shopping for wine while sipping some wine, flexing a retail errand into a little unscripted downtime — hybrid wine shops/wine bars like Faubourg Wines serve these roles.
They have been growing in number and variety across New Orleans, carving a third space in the city’s hospitality spectrum as specialty retail shops with a social side. They range from neighborhood hot spots, like Swirl Wine Bar & Market, to off-the-radar finds, like newcomers the Independent Caveau NOLA and Next to Nothing Wines.
The holiday season, always busy for wine shops as people dart in for gifts and stock up for parties, is their prime time.
“The whole point of wine is bringing people together, inspiring conversation and connections between people,” said Catherine James, owner of Faubourg Wines. “A wine shop should provide all those things. I’m not saying it can’t without having drinking there, but it sure does help.”
Sip, shop, settle in
Like craft brewery taprooms, these wine shop/wine bars function differently from conventional barrooms, keeping earlier hours and a tighter focus on their specialty. Some are licensed as bars, but limit their selection to wine, and sometimes beer. Others have limits on how much of their revenue can come from by-the-glass sales.
Together, they open a different angle on going out.
“There are a lot of options now for people to find what works for them,” said Beth Ribblett, co-owner of Swirl Wine Bar and Wine Market. “It doesn’t have to be the same kind of place for everyone. New Orleans is a very social town; people here turn anything into a social event.”
The small, five-seat bar at Swirl looks like a tasting counter between wine racks and a cheese case. Often, though, it can feel like the heart of the shop, the wheelhouse for the whole operation. Regulars settle in for a visit, customers sidle up with questions and Ribblett and her staff fill glasses and tell stories about the wines. Customers often leave with a bottle of the same they just sampled.
“A lot of our favorite wines end up on the by-the-glass list,” said Ribblett. “It helps us educate our customers and share what we love.”
The wine bar is also essential to the business in an increasingly competitive market. There are more places to buy wine now, from the rising number of specialty shops to huge national retailers that move wine by the truckload.
For customers, the wine bar adds to the warmth and personality of neighborhood shops, qualities that make local businesses like these the antidote to the blank coldness of big box retail and e-commerce.
James said her wine bar helped make Faubourg Wines viable when it was just starting out in 2012 on a stretch of St. Claude Avenue by the Press Street tracks.
“This wasn’t an area where many people thought a wine shop could work, but changes were already happening,” she said. “Pouring someone a glass, it was another reason for people to come in and check it out.”
Different pours
The concept isn’t new in New Orleans. Martin Wine Cellar, the shop that broadened the horizons for many as wine interest was first growing in New Orleans, has long offered wine by the glass through its deli. On any given day, people sip wine over sandwiches and lush boards from the shop’s cheese and charcuterie menus, and often take their glasses to wander the retail aisles stretching through the store.
Today, the same appeal takes different forms at different shops. In Mid-City, the retail floor of Pearl Wine Co. connects to a second room that houses its full-service bar, where people drink and talk or sit outside around tables fashioned from wine barrels. Similarly, at Second Vine Wine in the Marigny, keep walking past the wine cooler and you find a roomy lounge and wine bar in back, a tucked-away, inviting space for a glass.
The Tchoupitoulas Street location of the Wine Institute of New Orleans (or W.I.N.O.) has its own approach, equipped with ranks of automated wine dispensers for customers to sample a range by the ounce or by the glass. All the wines are sold retail here as well.
For beer lovers, a similar shop-and-sip model defines 504 Craft Beer Reserve, the specialty beer shop on Tulane Avenue with its own taproom built in a long-empty bank branch. On a recent night, as a pop-up was preparing food and a trivia game was getting underway, patrons were refilling half-gallon growlers to bring home or sipping pints from the taproom bar.
In the Bywater, Bacchanal started out as a wine store, added a wine bar and further evolved into a unique indoor/outdoor destination for wine, food and music. It’s no longer in the retail business, however, switching to on-premises wine sales only as its business model changed.
Some new wine shops are banking on their bars to draw customers off the beaten path. In September, the Independent Caveau NOLA opened on an obscure block of South White Street, just off South Broad, with a stylish design, a patio and a cloistered den of a wine bar.
Just a few blocks away, across Earhart Boulevard, longtime local service industry veteran Steve Bishoff opened the wine shop Next to Nothing Wines inside ArtEgg Studios, a former warehouse that is now a self-contained community of studio spaces.
Over the summer, Next to Nothing added a wine bar, converting what was once the receiving office on the warehouse loading dock. It has a five-seat bar, a few tables, a view of the sunset over low rooftops and a wine selection synced to Next to Nothing’s overall eclectic approach.
Though Next to Nothing is well off the mainstream, like other wine shops with wine bars, its personal touch, the arm’s length access to a proprietor’s wine knowledge and the feel of a low-key find has drawn a clientele of regulars.
“We maintain that wine should always be fun,” said Bishoff. “And being able to spend time like this with our customers make it more fun.”