One of the things Sarah Pierre, proprietor of 3 Parks Wine Shop in Atlanta, learned from years in the restaurant industry was never to say no to a customer. If that meant sending someone to run down the street to buy theater tickets so a dallying diner wouldn’t miss their show or running to the supermarket to grab an ingredient that would delight a guest, Pierre did it. When she opened 3 Parks in 2013 with a determination to do things differently, she brought this ethos.
So, she always said yes to her customers and found ways to surprise and delight. She’ll note when a regular customer has a baby and then, years later when those birth vintages came into the shop, she’d let them know she’d put aside a special bottle for them. (This is beyond next-level calendar-remindering.) As Pierre remembers, the lesson she learned long ago was: “The answer is yes, what’s the question?”
The only real limit was space. “For us at 3 Parks, the only time we ever really had to say no was when someone was like, ‘I want to host an event.’ or ‘Can I have my birthday party here?’ ‘I want to propose to someone,’” says Pierre. “We just didn’t have the space to accommodate people and private events and parties during the day.” And tastings would pack the store—with a line of people streaming onto the sidewalk.
The opening of a second 3 Parks location this past November remedies those issues.
This Article was originally published on Wine Enthusiast
