rooftop rendering
"Ever since I started working here eight years ago, the joke has been that the wall between the liquor side and the food side was very thick and very tall and really hard to climb over. And I remember back in my first years here thinking: why?" Karina Roe will be the GM of the newly expanded France 44 area that will, for the first time, really unite both sides of the business.
Unlike many states, Minnesota law does not allow grocery/food stores to sell alcohol within the same footprint. There needs to be a separate entrance and separate space for each, which is why we now have small bottle shops next to Byerlys and our Trader Joes don't look exactly like they do in other regions.
Most of us don't sweat this law, hey we got Sunday sales and that's something to be happy about. But I sometimes worry that the long impact of this separation has contributed to a belief that wine and spirits are not the same as food, that they are somehow not agricultural products and belong ... over there.
Benjamin Roberts, who is Chief of Cheese and in charge of all food business for the company, which includes the St. Paul Cheese Shop and the St. Paul Meat Shop, doesn't want to knock down the wall, he just wants to bridge it. With classes and private events, giving the staff a chance to share what they know on both sides of the wall, that's exactly what this new space is for.
"We have a team of super talented educators in all parts of the business which we've never had before," Roberts told me. "The time was right for this. We want them to succeed and prosper, and stay and grow, and all the things. That's why we built a butcher shop in St. Paul, right? That's why we've done a lot of things here, to keep good people around, give them the opportunities to do what they think they can do. Karina is absolutely one of the top wine professionals in Minnesota, it's her time to shine. Our institutional knowledge, the product knowledge, and the sense of hospitality that exists in this building allow us to be able to offer an experience that no one else can."
These guys have always brought a creative sense of fun to wine pairing and food classes. The World Cup of Cheese? More of that please. With this expanded space, they'll be able to offer more seats to the always-selling-out champagne classes, as well as book private tastings, host corporate events, team-building seminars, and industry tastings.
The team looked all around the neighborhood for extra space, but in the end decided that expanding their current building would not only deliver the classroom/event area they craved, but improve the infrastructure. "We finally get a loading dock," Roberts said, "I've unloaded trucks on the street in a blizzard and will be happy to be done with that."
The new double-decker expansion will include an 1,100 square foot space with seating for up to 30 people, geared toward hosting classes, tastings, events, meetings, and such. Sliding panels will open up the walls to the cocktail lounge with a fireplace and bar, which will add to the capacity. A demo kitchen will have a pizza oven and countertop seating for smaller groups, but the gem has to be the rooftop patio. The 1,120 square foot outdoor space will be tricked out with patio seating, fire pits, and a top of the line grill for grilling classes, pop-up events, and private parties.
They'll also be adding more warehouse space, and re-doing the entrance way. The doors will remain separate, but a new one to the event space will be added, along with a big cheese display case.
In the end, it's all just ingredients. Grapes, wheat, barley, cheese, bacon, wine pros, rooftops, all of it. "Which, is sort of the ethos at this place, in a certain regard," Roberts believes. "You bring in the best people and the best products you absolutely can and then you just kind of let them cook."
Construction has started, look for the finished project to launch this fall.
