The town hub
Every small town has its hub; the place where you get the dirt. The scoop. The whole enchilada. In Radford, it’s the Vintage Cellar. On Friday’s they have beer and a few wines to sample; “beer education” they call it. . . and on Saturdays, they have a nice line-up of approximately 5 to 8 wines. My husband, dog, and I have a standing date on Saturday afternoons to walk downtown for a little wine tasting and to catch up on the news you won’t find in the local paper. Okay—some might call it gossip. But it’s all with good intentions! And no, my dog is not a wine connoisseur. Chuck, the manager of the Radford Vintage Cellar always has his pup Abby with him. We bring our pooch Decaf down, and the two have a play date. I’m pretty sure this can only happen in a small town and maybe, well, Paris. Decaf looks forward to this weekly event, and when we’re a block from the store, he suddenly loses his ability to “heel”. We basically fly into the store. We dare not go in without Decaf. A couple of weeks ago we went in sans canine and Abby gave us murderous looks the entire time. Kind of took the joy out of the Les Agapes.
Back to the hub. Two years ago I ran a multi-arts summer workshop called ArtsXtreme on the campus of Radford University. I was having a heck of a time finding a music teacher, and happened to mention that as I was tasting wine one Saturday at the Cellar. Within 8 minutes Chuck had a friend of his on the phone with me, a music graduate student who was perfect for the job. I’ve seen real estate transactions, business partnerships initiate, and the courtship of Chuck and his beautiful wife Stephanie transpire in our little wine shop. Last year Chuck and Steph actually got married in the store.
Every town needs a hub. Does yours?
- Lucinda McDermott Piro