By the Glass, Bottle, or Plate
Church Street Cellars boasts innovative concept.
Church Street Cellars owner, Mark Heider, takes a breather with Chris Kuhblank, before the evening crowd converges.
By Donna Manz, The Connection
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Church Street Cellars is a hybrid. Part wine-bar, part wine shop, and part restaurant, the sum is more distinctive than its gourmet parts. Ever seen an automatic wine dispenser in action? Church Street Cellars has a line-up of 32 wines in its enomatic vats for sampling and sipping. Until two years ago, it was against the law in Virginia to sell wine in “vending” machines. All that is changed now.
“We usually sell 16 reds, 16 whites, through the machines,” said Church Street Cellar owner, Mark Heider. “For summer, we are slanting it toward more whites because they are lighter.”
The enomatic machine is a proportional dispensing unit that refrigerates, using a neutral gas — Heider uses argon — to keep wine fresh. When Heider installed his machines, there was only one other in use in Virginia, and that was at Fair Lakes, not far from the Fairfax County government buildings. Today, there are four, one in McLean, and another in Reston.
THE MACHINES have adjustable size settings, and Church Street Cellars offers glasses of 1-ounce samples, 2-1/2 ounces, and the standard wine glass size of five ounces. There are approximately 300 of the proportional dispenser machines across the United States, mostly in California and Florida, Heider said.
“This is the best thing, the best idea,” said Rebecca Sheridan of Vienna. “You can try really nice wines, sample them, and have a small taste, for a reasonable price. It’s perfect. The food is delicious, too.”
Sheridan and her friend from Oak Hill, Robin Palchus, shared appetizer platters, one, a crab salad with corn salsa, and another, the colorful Mediterranean Dip Platter. “The Brie quesadillas are wonderful, too,” said Palchus. “I’d recommend this place any day, but half-price Tuesdays are a bonus.”
Seth Clark, working the front room of Church Street Cellars, demonstrates the use of the enomatic machine, a proportional wine dispensing unit.
The bottled wine that Church Street Cellars sells in the brick walled-and-arched store range in price from $10 – $450. The wines in the machines cover broad price-points, as well.
Customers, after getting age-identified, are issued a zero-balance card for insertion into the individual machine units. Prices vary, as does size, and customers “run up a tab.”
GOOD FRIENDS, Bonnie Mottram and Marybeth Stewart, both of Vienna, shared appetizers of the Brie quesadillas, spice-seared scallops, and chicken satay. Each pronounced the food “excellent.”
“This is wonderful,” said Mottram of her first visit to the wine restaurant. “I would definitely come back again. This is such a good time.”
Stewart agreed that the “concept is wonderful.
“There’s no pressure to buy,” said Stewart, who was there last Tuesday with her husband. “We just stumbled on to this place, and it was half-price Tuesday, besides.
“There’s no one coming to your table saying, buy, buy, buy, more wine. You can get a taste of whatever you like, a sample to see if you like it. No pressure at all.”
Church Street Cellars opened in November of 2006, eight months after next-door Bazin’s on Church Street opened its doors. The two businesses jointly produce wine dinners, nine so far this year, Heider said. The five-course, five-wine dinners are in hiatus until September.
“Patrick [Bazin] and I do wine tastings, but Patrick makes all the choices as to what wines we’ll serve,” said Heider. “He designs and prepares the menus, and he’s a phenomenal chef.”
Heider and his wife have two children, and Heider, a life-long lacrosse player, coaches his daughters’ Vienna Youth lacrosse teams, and coaches VYI basketball, too. A graduate of George Mason University, Heider continues to work as a commodities broker even as he runs Church Street Cellars.
THE FAMILY moved to Vienna in 2003, and Heider is making himself, and the store, an integral part of the Vienna community. Staff is made up of mostly-local people, several Marshall and Madison High School alumni, as well. Chris Kuhblank, Madison High School boys’ basketball coach, and Seth Clark, who graduated from George C. Marshall, head front room staff. The chef, Zach Leasure, is a Marshall High School graduate, as well.
“I want to contribute to the community,” said Heider. “I’ll be coaching lacrosse next year, too. I want to be a communtiy-based store, where people can come in and try new wines, and learn about wines here.”
Surh-Luchtel Cellars
