Family Business – Bending Elbows

Things You Need to Know: How to Entertain a 5 Year Old in a Wine Shop

Originally published on October 24, 2011.

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Oh I remember those days. One of the huge perks of owning the business is that no one can tell you not to bring your kids to work. The kid in the picture actually drinks wine now. And has a pretty decent palate!

This installment of Things You Need to Know doesn’t really apply to all potential wine store owners. Just the ones that think it would be a good idea to open a wine store six months or so before having a third kid. Because if you, then eventually there will be a day when your manager has the rare weekend off, your newest staffer has a delayed start date due a nasty bronchial infection, your backups all dare to have lives outside of being your backups…and one of your kids will have a birthday party in the wide-open space of a Brooklyn park that guarantees at least one of your other kids will wander off into the Brooklyn wilderness if your husband attempts to take all three of them to the party.

Which is a long way of saying that if you have three kids and a wine store, eventually you’ll wind up with one of them in the shop in need of a couple hours worth of entertainment. They want to have fun. You want to get some work done. But there’s only so much work that can get done when the kiddo can’t even reach the counter.

Here are some tips:

Stock the Bottles Game

Shocking how well this one works. Probably because the kids aren’t usually allowed to touch the bottles. But in this game, not only do they get to touch the bottles…they get to MOVE THEM! To play, each shelf section is assigned a letter (another use for the indispensable Post-It Note.) Then the grown up calls out “yellow tops, Section A” or green tops, Section C,” or whatever. The lucky kiddo gets to PICK UP and MOVE THE BOTTLES from the wherever they’ve been piled to the assigned section. Once all the bottles are lined up, the lucky kiddo gets to yet again, PICK UP THE BOTTLES and HAND THEM to the grown up who puts them on the shelf. And if the kid is very, very lucky, he may even get to PUT BOTTLES ON THE SHEFL ALL BY HIMSELF! (Unless you’re 3 – 7 years old, you probably can’t imagine how exciting this is.)

Make a Display Game

First, you need to explain that a “display” is something you set up to be eye catching so people will stop as they walk by and want to learn more. Then you let the kiddo loose with various, often forbidden goodies, in this case, corks, plastic cups, flower pots (from the actual spring window display, fake autumn leaves, and yes….BOTTLES!

Photo Shoot

Give him the phone. Let him take pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. Delete as needed. (Although some may turn out to be sort of cool, in an abstract impressionist sort of way.)

Last Resort
Let Angry Birds and Red Remover get you through the home stretch.

Today, we actually didn’t need to get to the Last Resort phase. The plastic dinos came out of the rolly bag (yes, we packed a rolly bag even through the apartment is right round the corner.) They took over a few wine boxes and the husband and other two kiddos returned just as they were about to annex the Australia section.

Early Signs of Autumn

Originally published on September 12, 2011.

It’s autumn! Time to think about new wine to put on the shelves! Cider for crisp fall days! Champange for the holidays! Jura whites! Gift packs and dessert wines and higher end bottles for gifting! Right?

Wrong.

It’s time to master the logistical challenge of getting three kids to/from three schools with introductory phase-ins, sorting out the store schedule, training a newbie, attempting to attend as many trade tastings in a day as physically possible, and trying really really hard not to forget anyone’s lunch. Yes, there’s a husband and a babystitter and even grandparents flown in for the first couple week but still…everyone needs to know who’s picking up whom and packing what.

So the spreadsheets to the right are the essential tool to make all this happen. At least I get to put my highlighters to good use.

Because nothing says autumn like a nice, new highlighter….

Or that first call from the school asking who’s picking up your kid….

Or that first time you get to a locked store at noon…and realize you were the one that was supposed to open it an hour earlier….

OK, that last thing hasn’t really happened.

A Wine Store Owner REALLY Looks at 40

Originally published on October 7, 2010.

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: This turned out to be a very good party. We wound up having it at the apartment, and as the night went on, we wound up on the roof. We needed ore wine so I told a couple friends they could go bring up anything they wanted from the wine fridge. “Anything?” they asked. I did a quick mental inventory and said sure, anything. Of course they came back with the one bottle I had forgotten about: Krug Clos du Mesnil. Yeah, no. Not that one. So they went back down and resurfaced with the bottle I had expected them to come up with: Krug 1996. And it was good. I’m now 50 and still haven’t opened that bottle of Clos du Mesnil. Soon. Soon. Certainly before I hit 60!

A couple of years ago I wrote a post about helping a customer select a birthday gift for a friend turning 40. At that point, the store had been open for less than 6 months, I was less than two months away from popping out my third kiddo, and the big 4-0 seemed a very, very long way away.

And now it’s less than two weeks away. (I actually had to check the calendar to confirm that small detail.)

But while I may not be diligently counting down the days to the milestone day, I have been diligently collecting the wines. I’ve scrounged up several bottles of things from 1970, my birth year. I have the good fortune of being born in a decent year for old wines, so I’m not related to the Port bin for birth year wines.

On tap from 1970:

Lopez de Heredia Tondonia and Bosconia
Carema Produttori
Cappellano
Chateau d’Yquem

I’ve also picked up some other milestone wines over the years – 1989s for high school graduation, 1993 for college. I love old wines, not just because I love the taste, but because I love pausing to remember what was happening in my life – or the world in general – when the grapes were being picked.

It’s time in a bottle in the most literal sense.

Off-Hours at Frankly Wines….

Originally published on July 1, 2020.

Well, this isn’t actually at Frankly Wines. It’s right around the corner, several stories up. In the glass – Puffeney Poulsard “M” – perfect on a (rare, this year) cool summer evening. Yeah, you know you wish you were here!

Tools of the Trade – Don’t Leave Home Without Them

Originally published on March 17, 2010.

I am not a big fan of purple teeth. But it’s a hazard of the business. So rather than wander the streets looking like someone badly in need of a dental hygienist, I wander the streets with a kid-sized toothbrush and a little tube of toothpaste. Sure, SpongeBob Squarepants and Lightening McQueen may not be the height of toothbrush chic (unless you’re under five,) but they fit in a zip lock bag and tuck away in my purse. SpongeBob trumps purple teeth any day.

Ah, Technology

Originally published on January 9, 2010.

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: Yup, we were making a Negroni. Sbagliato. And were probably going to put prosecco in it since we were going to be featuring it during a prosecco tasting. That all may sound very familiar read from the vantage point of 2024. But look at the date this was originally published. 2011. Yeah, we were just that ahead of our time.

This is an attempt at uploading to my blog directly from email. Does
it work. And if it does, do I have a use for it? Is there really
anything so important in the world of Frankly Wines that it can’t wait
until I get back to my desktop?

Probably not, but I’ll probably do it anyway.

And the picture….obviously has nothing to do with this post. Or with wine. I just wanted to test the photo function. And really, why have a blog if you can’t occasionally force your readers to look at cute pictures of your kids?

Put-In-Bay: Scenes from My Youth

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: I’m about to place an order for some catawba-based petnat. And it is indeed pink. And I have even made a plea to a friend (who in the words of Pat Dailey does indeed have a house on the island where I can probably stay if I ask) to track me down some organically grown catawba so I can attempt to make my own pink petnat. Oh hybrids, how far you’ve come!

Originally published on November 7, 2008 .

For reasons unknown, today’s The New York Times real estate section featured Put-in-Bay, Ohio in its “Havens” column. The title: “Key West of the Great Lakes”. My husband said that “Key West of the Midwest” would have been catchier, but apparently the Times knows that Ohio isn’t really the Midwest (especially after its blue showing in the most recent election.)

As the article notes, Put-in-Bay is a little village on South Bass Island in Lake Erie. People ride golf carts around the island and drink. A lot. Including wine from Lonz Winery, which is located a short boat ride away on Middle Bass Island. For those not willing to take the boat ride, there was the Heineman’s Winery Wine Garden were you could lounge at picnic tables and drink Pink Catawba, Concord Red, or Crystal Cave Champagne from little plastic cups. Sheer deliciousness!!

There is also the fabulous Chicken Patio Peanut Wagon where my friend Denise spent summers serving peanuts to drunkards on their way to the fabulous Round House. That dome is NOT part of the Peanut Wagon – it is the Round House.

For a taste of the Put-in-Bay music scene, have a listen to Pat Dailey’s “Put-in-Bay Gonna Have a Good Time“, not to be confused with his ever-popular “How Drunk Are We Gonna Get.” Both may revolve around drinking but they are completely different songs.

Wine World Family Values

Originally published on October 7, 2008.

Owning a store, there are usually half-empty bottles of wine sitting around on the dining table (which is less a dining table and more a storage facility on which we occasionally eat a meal.) My 2 year-old has learned his colors from the labels on those wine bottles (although there is some justifiable confusion between yellow and orange thanks to Clicquot). He knows I go to the wine store every day. He likes to change the temperature on the wine coolers under the counter. He likes to clink his plastic cup against my glass and say “cheers.” Still, I was a little surprised when we jokingly asked him if he likes wine and he replies, “No, I like Champagne.” Do I hear child services knocking???

How to Keep Corks Happy Once Screwcaps Rule the Earth

Originally published on September 16, 2008.

The most commonly asked questions in my wine shop don’t involve wine. They don’t involve the parking rules for the spots outside the store. They don’t even involve directions to the World Trade Center (although that topic comes close.)

Surprisingly, the most commonly asked questions in my shop involve corks.

Actually, it’s not so surprising, because the back wall of my store is covered almost entirely in corks. Lots and lots of corks. And if you think it looks cool in the picture, it looks even cooler in person.

People are drawn to it, literally – drawn right behind the counter to where they can touch it. (This is a problem, because the staircase to the basement is right there as well, and if they don’t look where they’re going, they’ll be drawn right into a big hole.)

Children are especially fascinated by these corks. A few (including mine) have written their initials on a specific cork and come to visit it from time to time.

Kindergarten Crazies

A NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: The kindergartner mentioned above is … wait for it…. applying to colleges!!!! (1.23.2022)

Originally published on August 31, 2008.

Labor Day weekend is almost over and Fall is just around the corner. It’s almost OND! (October, November, December – the time of year when most wine stores actually make their money.) Time to start thinking about programming for cooler weather, for Thanksgiving, bubbles for the holidays, maybe some corporate gift programs.

TIME TO START THINKING ABOUT KINDERGARTEN!

Because this is New York City and even the sanest person can get a little crazy with the whole application process. For those of you outside of the Boroughs, yes, applications, for KINDERGARTEN!! Real thought must go into selecting the place where your juniors will hang out all day, slinging paint, eating crayons, and refusing to eat tasty school lunches. Actually, selecting the places where you hope the junior will get to hang out, because here in New York City, they also get to select you.

Oh well, it’s a good excuse to drink more wine…

Category: Family Business