30 November 2022
When needed that Vino Garage, the wine and beer shop on North Main Road, celebrated 10 years of being open up, owner Doug Aylard stated it was just like any other time over the last decade. “Honestly I had been like, ‘Oh, it’s been ten years? Interesting, okay. ‘ Somebody called out sick, therefore , ‘Great, gotta go to function, ” Aylard said. Aylard and I sat down for any meal on a brisk Thursday night afternoon at Sound Attacks Eatery, a small cafe that will opened late last year simply off Main Street. Aylard sipped on a sweet herbal tea as we discussed his shop’s 10-year anniversary and the upcoming charcuterie program he’ll begin with Vino Garage. Later, once we talked Columbia‘s food picture, he ate a Twerky Turkey sandwich while I actually enjoyed a Chicken Hip hop. We both ordered the orzo mac ‘n’ cheese since our sides. The self-described contrarian opened the container shop after moving in order to South Carolina more than 20 years back. Aylard jokes that, with 25, he hopped within the interstate in his hometown associated with Cleveland, Ohio, and had taken it all the way to Columbia.
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This individual worked a few odd job opportunities, including in an office in which he met his wife, Karen Oliver, before landing within the beverage distribution industry, in which he worked for several years and created his passion for wines. When the beverage company he or she worked for merged along with another and changed the particular bars and restaurants this individual distributed to, he made a decision to open his own place. “I had the best independent store restaurant route in town, and after the merger, they offered me the college bar route. Therefore i was selling Red Bulls to college bars, and that failed to last long, ” Aylard stated.
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Seeing a lack of wine stores around his neighborhood during the time, Aylard and his wife opened up his store, Vino Garage area, in the space that’s today Curiosity Coffee. Three years back, when Aylard and property owners butted heads over lease prices and maintenance problems, he decided to move one minute up the street to 2501 Main St . At the 2nd location, his store weathered the COVID-19 pandemic, he or she built an outdoor patio room that he’s used to sponsor local food trucks such as Mary’s Arepas and Parmesan cheese and Thank You, and he could soon introduce a charcuterie program. The meat plus cheese offerings were not within Aylard’s original vision meant for Vino Garage. Adding upon food offerings to a container shop is complicated, costly and time-consuming. But when their service insurance went upward more than 400 percent this season — from just under $6, 000 a year to $23, 000 — because he did not sell food, he chose to change that. “It’s such as zoning gymnastics, where I am too close to a cathedral to make food, so I need to be careful with how complicated the food can be, ” Aylard said. Aylard said your wine shop was successful through the pandemic, something he frequently feels guilty about provided how it affected some other restaurants and small businesses. “We did pretty well during the outbreak because we went right to retail and Cottontown, Elmwood and Earlewood are all strolling neighborhoods. We did properly, ” Aylard said. Even though Aylard has friends inside the service industry, he belittled the lack of creativity in the food around Columbia and mentioned he wished the city got more places that were carrying out unique things with their selections. “I would love to be able to visit a place, spend $200, go out and feel like I need to lighting a cigarette. Like the foods was that good, the assistance was that good. My feet curled, time and area rolled around me, inch Aylard said.
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He stated there are pockets around Columbia where cool things are usually happening, pointing to chef-owners like Kristian Niemi, the master of Bourbon, Black Rooster as well as the forthcoming The Dragon Area, and Mike Davis, who seem to leads Terra in Western Columbia, but the overall eating scene avoids going outside the box. Aylard hopes that will with football season finishing soon, which he stated negatively impacts wine shops like his because of the insufficient wine-drinking at tailgates, with the State Fair, which infamously draws money away from nearby restaurants according to Aylard, that passes, he looks forward towards the future. “There have been several times in there that maybe I actually could’ve called it, yet we stuck it away and here we are. We’re a fundamental element of the community in that area, inch Aylard said. “2023 Now i’m hoping is going to be a good 12 months. ”