A local wine curator has won approval to operate a specialty wine and cheese store in the Wethersfield space currently occupied by Drumroll Coffee Roasters, which will soon consolidate into a larger space.
Luigi Ciniglio, of Vino Crudo LLC, was granted a special permit for a change of use to sell alcoholic beverages in the Village Business district.
The 270-square-foot space at 217 Main St. has been the home of Drumroll Coffee Roasters since it starting roasting and selling coffee there in 2020. The specialty coffee shop will stay at the Main Street site until March, when Vino Crudo is set to open, said Siobhan Federici, who is co-owner of Drumroll with Vincent Federici.
Drumroll is one of the area’s only specialty coffee roasters to source only organic beans, and sell its own line of canned coffee. In February 2021, Drumroll moved roasting offsite to 57 Wells Road in Wethersfield “to accommodate our growth and the volume we were roasting,” Federici said.
Annual sales are up 43% since opening, she said, and in 2022, readers of CT Magazine voted Drumroll best coffee roaster.
In March, Drumroll will consolidate its retail coffee services to the Wells Road location, which is four times larger than the Main Street site, Federici said.
Drumroll provides wholesale coffee to area cafes and restaurants, including River: A Waterfront Restaurant and the Main Street Creamery in Wethersfield, TJ’s Burritos in East Granby, Bake Market in Rocky Hill, Ground Up Coffee in Hamden, among others.
Vino Crudo would be a boutique natural wine and cheese shop, smaller and “less cluttered” than traditional package stores, the applicant said.
The store will offer a selection of “low-intervention” wines, or wines processed with minimal human intervention, along with local and international artisanal cheeses, the applicant said.
The store would also host events such as private wine tastings, wine education workshops, organized trips to vineyards and more.
Vino Crudo would operate five days a week from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. with a staff, including owners Luigi and Jazmin Ciniglio and a few employees.
The storefront is at the end of a multi-tenant retail building at the corner of Church and Main streets, owned by New Day 21 LLC.
