{"id":33222,"date":"2016-03-09T10:28:34","date_gmt":"2016-03-09T16:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/?p=33222"},"modified":"2016-03-09T10:28:34","modified_gmt":"2016-03-09T16:28:34","slug":"community-comes-first-at-lakeviews-winehouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/community-comes-first-at-lakeviews-winehouse\/","title":{"rendered":"Community comes first at Lakeview’s wineHouse"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Katie Murar <\/strong><\/p>\n

Lakeview East\u2019s wineHouse is not a corner liquor store. It\u2019s a boutique shop\u00a0that serves a dose of education with every bottle.<\/p>\n

The small store, opened on Nov. 17, 2014, had a successful first year, despite the abundance of\u00a0competition in Lakeview. In\u00a0its first year, wineHouse sold in excess of 40,000 bottles of wine, with the\u00a0 average bottle costing between $15 and $17. The store has 1,800 newsletter subscribers and 280 wine club members.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a lot of liquor stores in this area, and a lot of people asked us why we would open up a wine store. And that\u2019s because our focus is wine, customer service and a commitment to the community,\u201d said Steve Greenberg, who owns the store with his husband, Jeff Mono. \u201cWe\u2019re not a corner liquor store where you can get cash at an ATM or lotto tickets, our focus and expertise is wine, and I think that made it easy for the city to take us seriously and not view us as yet another corner liquor store.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"located
Located at 3164 North Broadway, wineHouse encourages customers to buy a wine to pair with food from one of Lakeview’s BYOB restaurants. (Katie Murar\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With 35 BYOB restaurants in Lakeview, Greenberg and Mono thought a wine store would be a smart business move that would be received well by neighboring businesses and the community.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy husband and I love wineHouse,\u201d Katie Feldman Lefsrud, a wine club member since 2014, said. \u201cThe team there is really knowledgable, they have a good selection of little-known and more easy to find wines. They’re connected to the neighborhood and host really fun, no-pressure but well-executed mingle and learn-about-wine events.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greenberg, who already owns another business, was drawn to the community aspect. He wanted to open a store just as cohesive as the neighborhood. With a background in retail, the part that is usually hard when opening a business came with ease to Greenberg.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think when people have a dream about doing something they don\u2019t understand the process of what it takes to get a retail perspective up to opening doors, and how to do the business aspect and that was something that I was very comfortable with,\u201d Greenberg said. \u201cThe formula is the same whether you\u2019re selling wine or clothes or haircuts. It\u2019s the same concept and process, so all we needed to do was find Melissa and go from there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Melissa Zeman is the manager for wineHouse, and came onto the scene about a month before the store opened. She learned about wine through her previous experience as manager of a wine store, and through classes at the American Wine School.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to get into wine because it\u2019s challenging every day, and there is so much to learn. Even to master sommeliers, there\u2019s going to be a grape that they haven\u2019t heard of before. It just happens,\u201d said Zeman, who is in charge of wine selection and hiring for the store. \u201cTasting and trying new wines are the best way to learn about the industry, piece by piece.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Both
Both Melissa Zeman (left) and Steve\u00a0Greenberg (right) say they do not have a favorite wine, but Zeman enjoys a nice rose, while Greenberg favors champagne. (Katie Murar\/MEDILL)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

At any given moment, wineHouse has hundreds of different wines available. Not including Zeman, the store maintains 5 part-time employees.<\/p>\n

When considering which wines to buy from the store, Zeman takes many things into consideration, such as season and variety, and says\u00a0that as an independent store\u00a0wineHouse\u00a0has\u00a0more agency to work with around 25 different distributors to\u00a0obtain a variety of wines.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a small boutique shop, we get the chance to listen to the community and to work with smaller distributers and wineries, and we can find things for people that they\u2019re having trouble finding, listen to feedback and take those ideas and make it a reality,\u201d Zeman said. \u201cIt\u2019s been fun to mold with the community as we\u2019ve been here.\u201d<\/p>\n

When opening the store, Greenberg said, the biggest obstacle was getting through all of Chicago\u2019s ordinances.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe city of Chicago makes it somewhat difficult to get a license and with good reason, they want to make sure that there are good honest people running wine stores,\u201d Greenberg said. \u201cThe community has been extremely supportive of us, and we are very grateful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The wine club, spearheaded by Zeman, was put into place to help foster customer loyalty and to spread wine knowledge to younger wine drinkers, which Zeman says is their main client base.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to make it simple and affordable so it would encourage people to look at it and think, \u2018oh, that\u2019s actually something I could do,\u2019 even if they just graduated college, which is the case for a lot of our customers,\u201d Zeman said.<\/p>\n

Zeman has witnessed a noticeable shift in the ages of wine drinkers, which she thinks has been positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think there has definitely been an increase in young people drinking wine. We see it plain as day with our customer base, a significant part being recent graduates with an interest in learning about wine,\u201d Zeman said. \u201cYounger people are not yet set in their ways and are a bit more open to drinking outside the box, which we encourage at any age.\u201d<\/p>\n

wineHouse hosts free wine tastings every Wednesday and Friday, a staple which began shortly after the store opened. Greenberg said it costs virtually nothing, as\u00a0distributors’ representatives come in and bring their own wines to the store.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a social and educational experience, and it introduces new wines to people, giving them the opportunity to taste the wine for free, and if they love it, which often happens, they can buy it,\u201d Greenberg said.<\/p>\n

Elke Girresch, a Midwest representative for Rudi Wiest, a German wine importer, has done four wine tastings at wineHouse, and views these tastings as a means to spread knowledge about the culture of German wines.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I pick the wines to bring for tastings, I think about what I want to represent from Germany, and try to bring attention for these wines,\u201d Girresch said. \u201cI\u2019ll try to bring a variety so people will not continue to think that Germany is just Riesling land.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the wines Girresch brought was a pinot noir, priced at $21, which she convinced one wine taster to try despite her aversion for red wines.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s smooth and light,\u201d Girresch told her.<\/p>\n

Greg Peterson, a 26-year-old law student at Northwestern, came to wineHouse for his first time after seeing a sign advertising a free wine tasting. Peterson, a Lakeview resident, said he was impressed and would come back to the store, especially considering his appreciation for wine.<\/p>\n

\u201cI drink a great deal of wine,\u201d Peterson said. \u201cMe and my friends love wine, there\u2019s so much going on with it, there\u2019s always something new, there\u2019s always something exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Girresch echoed this quality, claiming wine is not just a beverage, but an avenue for understanding history and diverse cultures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWine is not just a beverage, it\u2019s about education. You learn about history and geography and it connects you with all different kinds of people,\u201d Girresch said. \u201cIt\u2019s all about learning and being open to learning more.\u201d<\/p>\n

wineHouse has also been involved in charity and fundraising events, such as the Lakeview East Art Festival last year, and the Lynn Sage Cancer Research Foundation benefit\u00a0in the fall. Greenberg says fundraisers are a new and rewarding way to give back and stay connected with the community.<\/p>\n

“Through our commitment to the community and connecting with our customers, we’ve been able to hold fundraisers and raise money for important causes through wine tasting events,\u201d Greenberg said. \u201cThat’s been a huge personal thing for me because that’s what life is all about: contributing and sharing.”<\/p>\n

With the first year success of wineHouse, an added location is being discussed.<\/p>\n

“I think Lincoln park would be the most likely area for our next store, though Andersonville is a possibility as well,\u201d Greenberg said. \u201cIt would happen within the next year or year and a half.”<\/p>\n

Photo at top: Lakeview\u2019s wineHouse sells hundreds of bottles of wine and accessories and holds events every week for wine lovers. (Katie Murar\/MEDILL)<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Katie Murar Lakeview East\u2019s wineHouse is not a corner liquor store. It\u2019s a boutique shop\u00a0that serves a dose of education with every bottle. The small store, opened on Nov. 17, 2014, had a successful first year, despite the abundance of\u00a0competition in Lakeview. In\u00a0its first year, wineHouse sold in excess of 40,000 bottles of wine, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":223,"featured_media":33229,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[585],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-winter-2016"],"yoast_head":"\nCommunity comes first at Lakeview's wineHouse - Medill Reports Chicago<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/news.medill.northwestern.edu\/chicago\/community-comes-first-at-lakeviews-winehouse\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Community comes first at Lakeview's wineHouse - Medill Reports Chicago\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Katie Murar Lakeview East\u2019s wineHouse is not a corner liquor store. 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