VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
Christopher Prawdzik: Hey everybody! Chris Prawdzik here from Samson Properties with another community feature.
Today, we are in Old Town, Alexandria at Wine Gallery 108. It’s a great wine shop and much more, located at 108 North Saint Asaph Street just steps from King Street.
Let’s go inside and talk to Lisa Katic, the owner, about what she has to offer.
Hi Lisa. Thanks for having us in your shop today. Why don’t you start by telling us what are the origins of the shop? What got you interested in all this?
Lisa Katic: Well, thanks for being here and talking to me today. It’s a pleasure.
I would say that my love of wine really started at a very young age, when I loved to cook with my mom and my grandmother at home. It really kind of grew as I got older and, obviously, was old enough to drink wine and be exposed to it. I really started to get more involved in, kind of, the wine and food pairing aspect, and I knew that I always wanted to have something full time in wine. And so, the opportunity presented itself, and I grabbed it.
Christopher Prawdzik: That’s great. That’s great.
Now, Wine Gallery 108, the name definitely suggests something more than just wine. Why don’t you tell us about that?
Lisa Katic: Yes, that is, I was fortunate to be connected with my creative side, much later in life. And so, I started painting, unexpectedly, and still, of course, carry my love of wine and food. So, when I opened the shop, it was really an opportunity to bring all three of those aspects together.
So Wine Gallery represents the fact that we have art in the shop. We sell pieces; we feature local artists. And the 108 is really significant to the shop since we came from 108 North Patrick Street and moved now to 108 North Saint Asaph. That was not planned on my part, but we were really happy to not have to change our name.
Christopher Prawdzik: Okay, Old Town as you know is a very unique community. You’ve got the historic aspect. You’ve got people who live nearby. It’s very, very walkable and everything. Can you explain your connection to the community in that way? What is your selling point to this community?
Lisa Katic: First of all, were so excited to be in the heart of Old Town now. And I think once people come into the shop and they realize the types of products that we offer, they’re just thrilled. We have all price points. I think some people think that, if you’re at a boutique shop in Old Town, we’re going to be really expensive, but we really cover all price points.
Me and my team taste almost every wine that comes in the shop. So we know the quality of the wine, we know who were working with, and we’re focused on boutique producers. You know these are very handcrafted wines that the producers pay a lot of attention to the making of the wine. They’re not adding anything to the wine to make it taste a particular way.
So you know, tasting as believing. I think, once people really are introduced to the wines that we carry, they always come back for more.
Christopher Prawdzik: So, Lisa, you mentioned food before, why don’t you tell us a little bit about this.
So you can’t have a wine shop without some really great, gourmet foods. We do try to focus on locally owned businesses for our food products, but we have foods from all over the world. We do make it a point to help our customers understand how to prepare some of these foods, whether they are entertaining or just enjoying them at home, and how they pair with all of the great wines that we have in the shop.
Christopher Prawdzik: That’s great and it also brings you back to your food roots, doesn’t it?
Yeah, it’s been so long, I almost forget about that. But I did, in addition to my love of cooking that I talked about earlier, I worked my way in the food service industry, in restaurants and bars and clubs, when I put myself through college. And that really always stayed with me during my nutrition career, which I did for about 15-20 years.
And during that time, I always had like a little side hustle in wine. And so I knew eventually I really wanted to be in that space full-time, because that’s where my passion lied. So I get to do that now.
Christopher Prawdzik: Here we are upstairs. Now why don’t you tell us a little more about the other things that the shop offers to people. How can they connect with the community? Tell us about the space a little bit.
This we consider our event space. And like I mentioned earlier, I really envision having all of the separate rooms up here, that you can’t see right now, worked into art galleries, which again will feature local artists.
We host our wine club up here and other like winemaker tastings in events, which is super exciting. Our wine club is a monthly club. We have two different levels. I think that’s a great way for locals to connect with us. You come here to pick up your wine.
And we have tastings every week. So that’s at our downstairs tasting table. Friday nights are a great time to come and taste, it’s like happy hour. We taste between 5 and 6:30. You can always talk to a wine professional at that time and learn a lot about the wines. We started a really exciting sparkling wine Saturday, where we feature and open up a couple bottles of bubbles. So we go to the market, come taste your bubbles and get all your great gourmet food and go home and have a great day. And then our Saturday afternoon tasting is between 2 and 4.
Christopher Prawdzik: So, Lisa, thanks for having us today at the shop. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about your hours and how people can connect with you.
Lisa Katic: Yes, our hours are Tuesday through Friday 12 to 7. Saturday is 11 to 7, Sunday 12 to 5. We are closed Mondays. Anybody can find us online at WineGallery108.com. You can sign up for our wine club on our website as well as sign up for our newsletter, and you’ll get information about certain special events that were doing and about our weekly tastings.
By the way, we hope to see you at our weekly tastings—Friday and Saturday. And don’t forget to follow us on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook at @WineGallery108.
Christopher Prawdzik: Thanks for joining us at Wine Gallery 108. Make sure you hit the subscribe button for more news and information about the local real estate market and great features such as this one. We will see you next time.
