Sign of a market top.
It’s yet another sign that the recession is either on the doorstep, or has already made its way inside, snacking on day old bread and slightly spoiled Humboldt Fog, and bingeing on Stranger Things 3. The economists will probably declare this as fact… in January…
I was fortunate to work there beginning in 1999, initially as their first Director of Wine E-Commerce later transitioning to the Wine Room as one of the Specialists. We tasted pretty much everyday and brought in what we liked. We never really had a hard budget but as entrepreneurs we knew what great wine tasted like and it didn’t matter to us that our clients wouldn’t read a review on it for at least 6 months. As such we made the market for hundreds of wines that are now established brands. When people would come in with sticky notes on the margins of Wine Advocate or Wine Spectator we knew what was coming. After letting them know their dozen 98-point+ wines that they along with thousands of others were now looking for were sold out months ago. I would come back and give them a gift by saying “The wines you want you don’t know that you want.” Then I explained that every one of the 1300 unique wines on the shelf were there because they beat out 9 others. I still am in touch with a few of them 2 decades later. Ex: We sold the entire first vintage of Drinkward-Peschon in about 10 days (about 170 cases, three guys.). Hundred Acre? I cant tell you how many screwdrivers I dumped (and wooden boxes too). All of us left in 2004/2005 due to a new GM coming on board that didn’t understand the Wine Department kept the doors open. I went to Vinfolio where I built their domestic business unit from scratch which eventually led to starting the magazine in 2011. Pax has probably had the most success of all of us who were there close to the beginning, but it provided a yardstick for any of us to measure anything else we encounter throughout our careers.
Nothing to do with an upcoming recession. D&D has been on a slow speed crash for a number of years. Two stores here in Charlotte closed 2 years ago with lots of unpaid suppliers and eventually evicted for unpaid rent. Foreign investors screwed the company big time.
According to Google Maps, there’s a D&D cafe on Madison and 84th. Never noticed it.
(Were you in these latitudes and didn’t call!?!)
I know they did a huge catering business throughout Napa. I assume that’s gone too?
The store in Georgetown appears to be open still. On the rare occasion that we were prowling GTown, we’d stop in but the prices made me choke, and we regularly shop at WF, Sutton Place (now Balducci’s) and numerous bakeries/butcher shops/fish mongers that cater to the pay-any-price crowd. I was/am blown away by the prices every time I step foot in the door.
I was there about 2 years ago. Walked in, thought it felt pretentious, lavish and cold, prices too high, walked out. It was not busy.
No wonder they went out of biz in Napa, if the 1992 Screagle sold at $35, that was their wholesale price.
From Paul Franson’s “Napa Life” newsletter today:
“It was even apparently almost a year in arrears on rent and was reportedly evicted by The Rudd Foundation, which owns the building…
The downfall seemed to come after Thai tycoon Sorapoj Techakraisri’s Pace Development Corp. bought the operation, which had stores in New York, North Carolina and other cities here and franchises overseas. Most have been closed but about half a dozen remain in the United States.
His plan was to expand, to 200 outlets, but it’s very expensive to finance fast growth. Ironically, Dean & Deluca opened a new store in Manhattan in April.
There’s no word yet on a potential replacement in the space. It’s a rare commercially zoned parcel in the unincorporated county and might attract a winery with big plans.”
And next to Flora Springs tasting room, also known as the ‘Zebra Butt’
Lived near the one on Madison for a while. They made a good iced mocha. Besides that and pints of Jeni’s ice cream never found anything else to buy there.
This one is on their last legs.
Back in the 90s the flagship store on Prince St. was the only place to get a variety of high end food and kitchen products (esp. after Balducci’s closed). Now such items are easily available in a multitude of locations (including online) without the huge markups that D&D always charged.
You should have come to the Upper West Side for Zabar’s, Fairway and Citarella. I never found much at D&D that I couldn’t get in my own neighborhood, even 15-20 years ago.
They had the Belvoir Elderflower Cordial which I still like a lot.
Haven’t ever gone shopping for that, so I can’t say if that could be had on the UWS.
Except if subway shutdown. ![[tease.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/c/c5b32b76bebaa359b0452ae247b61189ffe5fa7e.gif "tease"){kind=small}