Hospitality Wine Cellar Design

To the many fans of our website, we are happy to announce that we will be soon be introducing our new hospitality and design page to showcase our restaurant and hotel projects.



You will continue to see our ongoing residential projects for custom wine cellars and the many new exciting designs for our one-of-a-kind wine racks and wine storage. But here is a sneak preview of a recent restaurant project we completed.

Artisans Brewery & Italian Grill (formerly known as Basil T's in Toms River, N.J.) sought out the design services of Joseph and Curtis Custom Wine Cellars to emphasize their new focus on wines. Artisans is known for their cigar room; the in-house brewery and the excellent food and service. Now, they wanted to be able to showcase their selections of excellent wine. We sat down with the Gregorakis family and put their ideas and our designs to paper.

We took advantage of four arched, open niches and created custom wine racks for the space.



With our bare hands, we custom made these wine cabinets at our shop and did the rest of the carpentry on site in phases. The custom crafted wine cabinets featured accent lighting, wine racks and glass doors .



The first phase was done in about one week, allowing the other areas of the restaurant to remain open. Once the two cabinets and niche spaces were completed with the new wine cabinets and double doors, we moved to the front space, which also took us about one week for the custom racks to be built and installed.



Customers continue to compliment the owners on the new, extensive wine list, showcased in the beautiful custom wine racks.



We highly recommend the cigar room (which we personally have tried several times) where you can eat dinner or just lounge on the leather couches and watch a ballgame.Next time you're in the Tom's River area, stop in for a great meal, fantastic wine selection and (if you indulge) step in to the humidor for a cigar at Artisans Brewery & Italian Grill.



Overall, the entire project was completed on time, on budget and as always the clients were delighted. We will be reviewing the wine list of Artisan's and many other restaurants around the tri-state area on our new hospitality page which will be published January 1.

Bon Apetit!

Garage to Wine Cellar Conversion

Most people assume that wine cellars are in the , well, you know- cellar, but at Joseph & Curtis Custom Wine Cellars we are always looking for innovative places to create a custom wine cellar. We are doing more and more wine cellars and custom wine racks on the main living level from new construction where an entire room is specified by the architect near the kitchen or dining room to retro-fitting a wine cellar into an existing (and underused) butlers pantry which we completed recently in Holmdel, NJ - watch for upcoming blog.



The garage project however was a first. We were contacted by the homeowner Phil who told us ' it doesn't have to be elegant or fancy, but it does need to store and organize as many bottles as the space will allow' and will need a wine cellar cooling system that will maintain my collection at 56 degrees' for his extensive wine collection.

We met Phil and surveyed the room he had in mind, an approx 10'x10' annex to the garage that would be a perfect space for a wine cellar once the room was prep ed with the proper vapor barrier and insulation. We designed the space for maximum storage and were able to give Phil upwards of 1800 bottles! A space that might otherwise be full of old lawn chairs, fishing rods and rusty bicycles has been transformed into a wine lovers tour of France, California, Italy, South America etc.



Fancy or not we still produced beautiful Redwood custom wine racks and Phil loved the display rows we gave him that allows him to easily locate the wine he is looking for since you can see the label and the bulk storage above and below that bottle for wines he stores a quantity of.



Phil loves gardening and has a massive vegetable garden and commented that the cellar would be a perfect environment to store his canned harvest. So if you happen to be wandering through Phil's cellar don't be surprised if you see a mason jar sitting proudly beside a '86 Mouton Rothschild.

Hmmm, which wine do we drink with the pickled beets?

Cheers!

Summit Wine Cellar Q & A

Welcome back everyone. If you have been reading our blog, you know that we recently had the pleasure of working with Dan A. from Summit NJ. The homeowner was very detail oriented, with African mahogany wood raised panel and coffer ceilings throughout the entire basement. We decided the wine cellar needed to blend with the overall look yet have its own unique footprint in the space. We decided to build the racking out of 100% Malaysian mahogany (which is a lighter species of mahogany than African) to really contrast the other woodwork in the basement...as well the custom bar.



Once the cellar was finished we decided to bring Dan into Italian Wine Merchants for a night in their "vintage room"...It's a night of sensational food and wine pairings. Dan has also been back with his wife and even tried the tripe (which he loved). Dan was very impressed with IWM'S philosophy and attention to detail and even decided to sign up for their cellar management software.



Since we were in Summit catching up with Dan about his wine cellar and taking some pictures, we decided to ask Dan about his new cellar and to learn a bit about his favorite wines.

Q: How is the cellar?
A: We love it. We do alot of entertaining in the basement and of course the wine cellar. My father has always made his own wine so I have always had an interest in wine. I love the fact you can share it with so many people as well as the chance for the wines to increase in value.

Q: How many bottles do you currently have?
A: about 600

Q: What is your favorite part of the wine cellar?
A: Besides all the wine...the mural. It was hand painted into a niche in the
custom wine racks that was from a photo of my families villa in Gallinaro, Italy. I also like the granite which ties in the granite from the bar. We also decided to turn the sump pump closet into a storage area in the wine cellar rather than closing up the area with a door. Joseph and Curtis were able to design racks that fit the space and tied both rooms together. We currently have some large format displays in the niche area.



Q: What wines have you been drinking lately?
A: Alot of Sangiovese and northern Italian wines...Barolo, Nebbiolo etc.
I have always loved super-tuscans but after working with IWM we have been able to try some fantastic wines from not only Italy but France as well.

Q: What are your favorite everyday wines?
A: Movia,Tenuta San Guido 2005 Guidalberto

Q: How about special occasions?
A: Barolo or Amarone

Q: You get locked in the wine cellar..you can choose only 1 bottle to open...which is it?
A: Sassicia 2004

Q: How is the Italian Wine Merchants cellar management software?
A: Love it. Very easy to use...I go to it very often. It gives you the ability to leave tasting notes...as well as organizing your cellar to the exact bottle count. It has charts, graphs, and will even show your percentages of the regions or countries your wine is from. I also love the write ups about the producers and will take you to their websites.

Dan, thanks for sharing your passion for wine with our readers. It was a pleasure creating your wine cellar and we are very pleased you and your wife are enjoying it. We wish you many years of enjoyment!

Cheers!

The Wine Loft in Long Branch, NJ

Joseph & Curtis recently completed The Wine Loft in Long Branch NJ which features a custom wine cellar and a 19' custom wine rack. The scene at the wine loft is like a very cool living room...a place to just hang out and have a glass of wine.



There are several comfortable couches as well as a bar, and yes a loft area with leather couches and a terrific view of the 19' custom wine racks that highlight the bar area.





Joseph & Curtis also built a custom wine cellar on the first floor with a window and cooling system.



The wine loft offers over 50 wines by the glass and well over 100 wines by the bottle as well as sparkling wines,ports, and all spirits. The wine loft also has a terrific menu (much like tapas but not Spanish) our choice is the filet mignon salad and the artisan cheese selections. The wine loft offers catering for private parties from as little as 10 to as many as 100.



The wine loft opens Saturday March 21 and is located at Pier Village 32 Laird st, Long Branch NJ. We highly recommend The Wine Loft for their outstanding wine list, the food, and relaxed and upscale setting.

Cheers!