I grew up in a neat neighborhood for a kid: tiny, winding streets barely wide enough for cars to pass and little houses stacked on top of each other. We were the loud family, seven practicing troublemakers cycling about, reenacting scenes from Goonies and E.T. and Tron, mostly happy interrupting the serenity of this little hillside. We had colorful neighbors like Dan-the-Ice-Cream-man, his Red Rooster truck our personal candy store. There was the kindly Opal and Cecil and the elderly Norwegians, Leif and Hilda. We would sneak into their backyard and crowd into their hot tub. They would pretend not to notice. There was the widow Scarvacci. One of my brothers convinced me her late husband had passed and that she kept his body in there. I was a gullible (and often frightened) child.

Then there was Pearl. Pearl was infinite. She had strange, grotesquely disproportionate pillars erected outside her tiny house, a Gone With The Wind nostalgia project gone horribly awry. My brothers avoided her house on their walks, but I would often forget and would be beckoned with hard stares and cries of “Lemonaaaaade”. I had to make excuses why I had to be home straight away. One day though, she got me. She called out and locked on me. I stammered and simply went blank with no good excuse. I was in her Tractor Beam and walked to her door with a limp “OK”. With silent glee she led me to her kitchen and sat me down at her green formica dinette. I stared at the ceiling hoping to be saved by my mother’s distant call, while Pearl mixed her famous concoction.

A fun ending would be for me to share that it was the finest lemonade I have ever tasted to this day. That would be a good ending. But Pearl’s lemonade was, in truth, pretty awful. It was just an old lemon squeezed into room temperature tap water. She apologized for being out of sugar. I sipped in silence and eventually excused myself. At a polite distance from her home, I broke into a run.

This evening we kick off our wine tasting program. It will be nothing like Pearl’s lemonade (well almost: no sugar here either). These wines are the real deal. All lively and vibrant and dry. Crazy delicious. $10 for 3 wines. Red Flight or a White Flight. Choose your own adventure tonight from 4-8pm*. Additionally, there will be an all Rosé Tasting this Sunday from 12-4 ($10, 3 wines). We will be hosting tastings every Thursday night and on Sunday afternoons from here on. Get on board.

Finally, we are also thrilled to announce our Grand Opening Party on Saturday, December 10th. Small bites and free bubbly from 4-8. Magnum raffle too! Bring your friends, your trouble-making siblings, your kindly neighbors, or an elderly Norwegian.

See you soon,

Daniel