Wine on a Mission
Newly refocused Wine Poste departs one hot Dallas neighborhood for another
Unique wine retailer Wine Poste is saying goodbye to its location in the sizzling Dallas Design District and hello to an equally trendy neighborhood: Bishop Arts. The store, whose specialty includes online wine sales, is moving to 246 W. Davis St., dead center between Stock & Barrel and Zoli's NY Pizza Tavern.
It doesn't get any hotter than that.
Manager Wes Dorlich says that the move will be accompanied by a shift in mission. "We were doing a lot of events in the Design District, but with the move, we'll focus more on selling wine," he says. "Bishop Arts was always a place we wanted to do something, and we found the perfect spot."
The Wine Poste was founded in 2013 by retail veteran James Jordan and Matthew Thompson, a sommelier. At their Design District location, they featured tastings and dinners starring winemakers and celebrity chefs such as Tiffany Derry.
"The events component has been rewarding, but it's also a lot of work coordinating all that," Dorlich says. "It pulled away from our ability to sell wine, and that's our main focus."
Online sales will continue to be key; unlike many online retailers, Wine Poste can ship wines throughout Texas and 23 other states. But in Bishop Arts, they'll focus more on retail, along with a wine-bar component.
"There's not a lot of places doing that right now, selling bottles but also wine by the glass," Dorlich says. "[It] is great for that location. We'll start out with retail and work our way into doing a small by-the-glass menu and grow from there. It'll be very adaptive."
No food, though. "There are a lot of options working with restaurants in the area, but nothing's set in stone," he says.
They anticipate opening in Bishop Arts within the next two weeks. They're finishing up renovations on the space, a former paint shop that sold auto body paint.
"It looked like an '80s office, with ceiling tiles that came down really low," he says. "We removed them and the ceiling opened up into what feels like a lot bigger space.
"There was a window they didn't know was there because it had been boarded up from outside. So we have that uncovered. The space was a lot prettier underneath than what you were able to see at that paint store."
They'll add scene-setting racks and French bistro-style tables.
"We knew it was a good location, but once they were taking everything out, it turned out to be a lot better than we thought," he says.
The by-the-glass part fits with their goal to make wine accessible. "We're just trying to push good wine," he says.
