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!

Meet Scott Cutaneo World Class Chef

Where does an all-star chef go once the restaurant he has owned achieves almost cult status...4 stars...and a worldwide following? He becomes the owner and full time chef at Equus Tavern in Bernardsville, NJ. Of course I am talking about Scott Cutaneo (former owner of Le Petite Chateau).



After spending time with Scott (whom I consider a personal friend) its impossible to not feel his passion for food, wine, friendship, integrity, quality and above all family. His eye for detail is remarkable. His passion for food is second to none.

Read Scott Cutaneo's bio at the Equus Tavern website.

At Equus his mission is simple...everyone is a VIP and yet nobody is a VIP...he wants everyone to feel welcomed. At the Equus Tavern he wants everyone to know that he is here to serve...and that all who enter will feel this extension of his heart.

Equus is one of the nicest restaurants in NJ. The inside had a major renovation 2 years ago...but never lost the true integrity of the 1850 landmark stone structure.

The address is 1 Mill St Bernardsville, NJ 07924
(908) 766-3737

>> Google Map & Directions

Equus offers a full bar with private party availability on the 2nd floor and a gorgeous outdoor patio. Scott plans on a new menu dedicated to the amazing foods he prepared at le petite chateau but with a true American flare. The wine list is also going to be similar to the previous restaurant as well.



Equus will be having its friends and family party April 15 from 6:30-until. Please give J&C a call for availability. We were honored to be chosen for the wine cabinet enclosure on the main dining floor...pictures soon to follow.

Scott Cutaneo is also a regular on Fox & Friends, check out his website Great Scott Chef for video clips.



Scott is also involved with www.teatogether.com, their products are TRULY second to none..and will be featured in many of the amazing dishes at Equus. Tea Together's mission is "to turn the unremarked details of day-to-day life into small but authentic pleasures. In doing so, we promote and encourage the cause of real food."

I cannot tell you what an honor it is to be working with our friend Scott Cutaneo "Great Scott" and the Equus Tavern restaurant. At J&C we give Equus 5 stars...we think you will as well!

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!

NYC Restaurant Wine Cellar

Joseph & Curtis recently completed a custom wine cellar for a restaurant in NYC. The restaurant L'ARTUSI, which is located at 228 w 10th street in Manhattan, has a very dramatic and elegant feel. The owners came to us with an idea to build a wine cellar on the second floor (loft area) but were not quite sure how to lay the room out.



We decided to design the cellar with a very small footprint on the overall space of the restaurant as we all know how expensive square footage is in NYC. This type of design has become VERY popular with residential as well as commercial spaces because it enables homeowners to have a beautiful cellar without forfeiting large amounts of square footage to wine storage.

The total width of the wine cellar (which is shaped like a horseshoe) is about 40" with the 2 legs of the shoe being about 10' long and the middle wall being about 26' long.



L'ARTUSI was able to then conserve valuable floor space for a VIP room with custom sliders overlooking the wine cellar and the second floor dining room. From the beginning of the project there was much work to be done.

The initial work included gutting of the entire space; creating a vapor barrier, insulating, running all the necessary electric and HVAC for the lighting and cooling system.



We then had to re-sheetrock the entire space as well as frame the knee-wall (which became raised panel and picture frame moldings) and 5 separate exterior glass windows from the knee wall to the ceiling. Once that was completed and we had reliable wall and floor dimensions we went right to work on the custom wine racks (redwood)

L'ARTUSI had a very tight timeline as they hoped to be open before the holidays. We had to take on extra workers to accommodate this request. Once we finished the racking we had to have our mill and UPS expedite the shipping to finish in time for the grand opening. We had several of our installers on site for the commercial wine racking install.

The custom wine cellar came out magnificent, with plenty of bulk storage for more than 2,000 wine bottles as well as 3 different large format display rows as well as custom 750 displays as well. Our HVAC installed a ducted cooling system (we could not get access to the roof) which ended up being an upgrade from our original contract which we were happy to cover for our client since we have a very strong policy of never changing our contracts unless the customer decides to add additional features. The system has 3 separate supplies in the space and a very large return.



The last day ended up being a little harder than we thought with the glass install (5 pieces several of which were 4' x 8') and didn't quite fit the opening since they changed slightly when a veneer was put up for painting purposes. We had 2 of our carpenters as well as four of our glass guys working for seven hours to finish in time before the restaurant opened for there usual 5:00pm sitting.



Overall the project was a great success and the owners of L'ARTUSI we’re very happy with our services and how the overall custom wine cellar turned out. We have since dined at L'artusi AND we’re very impressed with the food and of course the wine list.



Please stop in and see the wine cellar on the 2nd floor and have a truly wonderful meal.

Stay tuned for more...

Cheers!