<< Business News
10 • BAY AREA REPORTER • September 14-20, 2017
t
Lesbian couples open wine shop, surf club in Pacifica by Matthew S. Bajko
N
ear Pacifica State Beach, in the Linda Mar section of the seaside town the shoreline is named after, are a wine store and a surf club run by lesbian couples that are bringing together Peninsula residents, surfers, and day-trippers. Pacifica residents Katie Brookshire, 32, and Courtney Brookshire, 35, own and work full-time at the Table Wine Merchant in the Linda Mar Shopping Center (Store #1237). This month they are marking their third anniversary of offering “cheap and cheerful” wines, as the majority of the 300 wines they sell are priced under $20, with between 40 and 60 costing $10.99 or less. “We call them our weeknight wines,” explained Katie Brookshire, who left a restaurant career in San Francisco to open the shop. “A boutique wine shop conjures up an image of expensive and pretentious. We want to give you wines you take home and drink. We are a wine shop for every day of the week.” Brookshire works with small suppliers and distributors to find inexpensive wines that still taste good. She joked the shop is the “Ross” of wine, referring to the discount clothing store Ross Dress for Less that also has a location in the shopping center. “At this price point you need to go through a lot of shit to find the good stuff,” explained Brookshire. The store does carry a handful of bottles priced over $30 should someone be looking for a special occasion wine. The most expensive bottle, at $110, is a 2006 Ettore Germano Barolo Lazzarito Riserva. Hikers and beachgoers can also purchase a variety of food items, from cheeses and meat plates ($5.99-$11.99) to tinned seafood ($8.99-$13.99) like spiced calamari, tuna, or smoked sardines, for a picnic lunch. “It has been really good,” said Katie Brookshire. “When we first opened people would only drink California wines. Now they are asking about other wines. It is great to see people tasting and exploring other wines.” At age 22 Brookshire was certified as a sommelier by the International Culinary Center in Campbell and returned to San Diego, where she and her wife grew up, to run the wine program at several now-closed restaurants. With locals preferring to drink
beer instead of wine, she and her wife decided to move to Pacifica, where her mother was living, in 2010 with their then 2-year-old son Atticus. (This summer they welcomed the birth of their daughter Theadosia.) She worked at Quince, Cotogna and the now-shuttered St. Vincent prior to opening the wine shop, which was a departure from her initial plan to open her own restaurant. “We had a 6-year-old and wanted to have another kid. I knew if I was running a restaurant I would always be stressed, so we went into retail,” said Brookshire. “Then the question was where to open.” Rather than look for a place in the city, she settled on Pacifica after needing to buy a bottle of wine one night and ending with “a shitty bottle” from the local Safeway. They rented a space across the parking lot from the chain grocery store due to the ample parking and it being accessible to people commuting down the coast. “I can’t just sell three bottles a day. I have to be somewhere people will come,” said Brookshire. Courtney Brookshire quit her job as a vet technician to help staff the store. (She also moved in her record collection and an old fashioned turntable.) The couple, together 14 years, has turned a backroom area into a play space for their children and the kids of their regular customers who stop by for wine tastings. The store’s small bar area is for ages 21 and up and offers different wine tasting events ($10 for a flight) Friday nights between 5 and 9 p.m. and all day Saturdays. During the rest of the week there are wines by the glass ($5$9). For a $10 corkage fee, you can drink your bottle of wine there and either purchase food from the shop or bring it in from another restaurant. The Table Wine Merchant is open 2 to 8 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays; 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; and from noon to 7 p.m. Sundays. For more information, visit its website at tablewinemerchant.com/.
A surf shop with a club atmosphere
Across the street in the Pedro Point Shopping Center is the Traveler Surf and Swim Club, (5450 Coast Highway) owned by Julie Cox, 37, a UC Santa Cruz graduate and former pro surfer. Local surfers can join as
Rick Gerharter
Table Wine Merchant co-owners Katie Brookshire, left, and her wife, Courtney Brookshire, stand in their Pacifica shop.
Rick Gerharter
Traveler Surf and Swim Club owner Julie Cox stands with her wife, Rel Lavizzo-Mourey, in front of a wall of surfboards.
members to store their surfboards there and utilize the locker room and outdoor showers; visitors to the area can buy a day pass. There is a path to the nearby beach from the club’s backyard garden, which features a patio with a heated bench. “It replaces the hot tub concept,” said Cox, who grew up near Malibu and formerly served as the director of the California Surf Museum in Oceanside, north of San Diego. “It is so cold here, you are not going to hang out on the beach after surfing so you can do that here. I want it to be like southern California surf culture, where you are hanging out on the beach with your fellow surfers.” Upfront is a retail shop stocked with everything from jewelry and sunglasses to clothing and gift items. Also for purchase is two lines of surfboards ($725 to $1,075) Cox and her friend Ashley Lloyd Thompson, who lives in Santa Cruz, design for women. The store also carries the
American-made outerwear label Silver Lining Bespoke owned by Cox’s wife, Rel Lavizzo-Mourey. She works with artists to create special linings for the insides of her hoodies ($124) and field coats ($485) and donates 6 percent of the proceeds to arts education groups. “Our motto is ‘It’s what’s inside that counts,’” said Lavizzo-Mourey, 36, who helped Cox design the store and helps staff it on occasion. For her inaugural collection, she collaborated with Oakland artist Kelly Ording. Others interested in designing the linings for future collections can apply via the brand’s website at silverliningbespoke.com. As her two-year-old company continues to expand, Lavizzo-Mourey is aiming to open a retail location in downtown Los Angeles sometime next year. “It’s been going well. We did a Kickstarter campaign to launch the brand and then it has just grown by
word of mouth,” she said. The Daly City residents opened the surf club last October and are planning to throw an anniversary party sometime in early December. Each month they host a variety of events at the store, from food vender pop-ups and movie nights to weekly Wednesday morning drop-in yoga classes from 8 to 9 a.m. ($15 or $10 for surf club members). They built the store space to be flexible with easily removable merchandise displays and a wall that can be pulled down and turned into a movie screen. Their aim is to create a community center for local residents and surfers in the area; a Pride barbecue event they hosted in June drew 30 people. The surf club has 25 members currently and can accommodate up to 75 people. Membership prices differ by length and if it includes board storage. Monthly passes start at $100 or $150 with a board, while a six-month pass costs $540 or $810 with a board. Day passes cost $15. Both day passes and memberships can be purchased online at https://travelersf. com/. Traveler Surf and Swim Club is open weekdays from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. and opens an hour earlier on weekends. For more information, call (650) 735-9192 or email mailto:hello@travelersf.com.
Castro stores offer Folsom Fair special
Two stores in the Castro have teamed up to offer customers special deals ahead of the annual Folsom Street Fair, Sunday, September 24. The lesbian-owned Skin on Market (2299 Market Street) is partnering with Green Surge (2301 Market Street) on the special “Fit To Be Tied ... for Folsom!” promotion. Customers can get facial treatments and juice cleanses at reduced prices from the retailers. The Sub Zone ($80) deal comes with a micro zone moisture boost and one-day smoothie/juice cleanse for a savings of $20. The Dom ($170) package includes a 50-minute face treatment and a two-day smoothie/ juice cleanse worth $40 in savings. Or there is the Master ($212) deal that includes the face treatment and a nostril wax plus a three-day smoothie/ juice cleanse at a $60 price reduction. Stop by either store to inquire about the special deals.t Got a tip on LGBT business news? Call Matthew S. Bajko at (415) 829-8836 or e-mail m.bajko@ebar.com.
®
99
$
Drain Clean Special* Ad award honors fertility clinic
Call us 24/7
415-993-9523 Main line service up to 100’, with access point. Warranty included. May not be combined with other offers. Service limited to San Francisco County resident, 8am to 7pm.
A locally owned and operated franchise. Lic# 974194
www.MrRooter-SFO.com
S
taff at Reproductive Science Center are all smiles after the company was named the San Francisco winner of the second annual Ad POP (Pride in Online and Print) Awards from the National LGBT Media Association. The Bay Area Reporter, one of 12 regional LGBT news outlets in the association, selected the 34-year-old fertility clinic to be its
2017 regional awardee. The ads were designed in-house. The Ad POPs honor the best representations of LGBT individuals in online and print advertising in regional LGBT media for ads placed in 2016. For more information about RSC, visit https://rscbayarea.com/.