BOUTIQUE BUBBLY: HEALDSBURG'S ARBORETUM APPAREL SHOP GETS OK TO ADD WINE BAR

A clothing boutique in Healdsburg is planning a first for the wine-steeped town by adding a sparkling wine bar for its customers.

Arboretum obtained the approval of the city Planning Commission to add the small bar to its apparel store a half-block off the touristy downtown plaza.

The idea is to make the shopping experience a little more festive.

"When you have friends around and everyone is in good spirits, it's more inviting to shop," said co-owner Andrea Barrett. "It feels like a party, a celebration."

"We're coining this phrase, 'Refreshing Retail,'" said her business partner, Kate Morison.

And if it opens up shoppers' pocket books a little more, that works, too.

Barrett said serving bubbly harkens back to when upscale department stores on the East Coast offered alcoholic beverages.

But it seems a novelty in Wine Country.

"We haven't had this kind of combination of retail with a little bar in the middle of it," said Healdsburg Senior Planner Lynn Goldberg.

"I've never heard of that before," said Mike Korson, the longtime Santa Rosa district administrator for the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control. "It's an interesting concept."

He said the closest thing that comes to mind is a few art galleries that obtained licenses to sell wine.

"We used to have one in Napa," he said.

"We feel pretty excited about the fact we have a unique idea," Barrett said.

The Planning Commission on a 5-1 vote on Aug. 9 approved the conditional use permit for the sparkling wine service. Dissenting commissioner Phil Luks expressed concern that it would create an over-concentration of alcohol-serving establishments.

Healdsburg already has 30 "on sale" alcoholic beverage places -- bars, tasting rooms and wine bars. That doesn't include 22 restaurants in the downtown core, nearly all of which serve some type of alcohol, according to Goldberg.

She said Healdsburg appears to have the highest concentration of tasting rooms in Wine Country, based on her surveys of other tourist towns, including Sonoma, Calistoga, Yountville and St. Helena.

That doesn't mean every tasting room gets approval in Healdsburg. In the past few years, a few applications were rejected because of concerns of over-saturation.

There's been talk in the past of limiting alcohol-serving establishments in Healdsburg, but currently they are reviewed on a case-by-case basis by the Planning Commission.

Goldberg said the rule of thumb is to limit new wine tasting rooms to one per each side of a block. The rationale, she said, is to promote a diverse retail base that doesn't solely revolve around wine.

Barrett and Morison say they will have a clear differentiation between the beverage portion of their store and the clothing.

They plan a 150-square-foot screened area that will have a serving bar for 12 to 15 patrons. It would be open the same hours as the store and offer a variety of sparkling wines, as well as non-alcoholic fizzy beverages. But it will be secondary in importance.

"We don't want to run a bar. Neither of us wants to be bar owners and we don't want to work at a bar," Barrett said.

They want to emphasize the retail side of the store located at 332 Healdsburg Ave. It offers shoes and "ethical apparel," meaning that no sweatshop-like conditions were involved in the production process, that fair working wages were paid and that products are hand-made in the United States with materials such as organic cotton.

It's more expensive, but Barrett claims the clothes are better quality and longer-lasting. They also plan to add jewelry, gift and beauty products.

The businesswomen, who have operated Arboretum for five years, are applying for a license from the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

The plan is to close the store for the remodel in January and February and re-open in the spring with the champagne-style beverages.

Korson, the ABC administrator, said some businesses such as hair salons occasionally try to give away a glass of wine or beer to their customers. But he said that's illegal because it has to be sold.

When those retail businesses investigate getting a license, he said they are often dissuaded by the expense and remodeling needed to operate a bar.

But Barrett insists they will have sparkling wine flowing.

"It's a lot of work," she acknowledged. "But we feel it's going to be worth it."

You can reach Staff Writer

Clark Mason at 521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com.