Family came first in decision to sell BellaVino

I have received many emails, phone calls and letters about my selling BellaVino, both the property and the business. I asked to meet with The Athens NEWS, as you already know, last week in order to try and squelch some of the rumors and explain my side of the story. I was sad to see that only a little bit of my conversation with Jim Phillips (a 30-45 minute talk) was actually published last week. The quotes that did make their way into the paper, I worry, may be (or have been) misconstrued as me being whiny about the success (or inferred lack thereof) of the business or ungrateful to my loyal customers (many of whom we do have and for whom we have always been extremely thankful).

I took over what was then "Happy Cat II" in 2006 desperately scraping together enough money to purchase the then pathetic and faltering business and property in order to "rescue" said building from, get this, being razed into a parking lot for an upcoming nearby development. My family has always had an interest in local historic preservation.

My father, an original investor the Eclipse Company Town, also had interest in saving the building once used as a stable/barn for the brickworks as well. Believing that there was a niche for a specialty beer and wine store, we hoped for the best when diving in, purchasing the business and property at what we thought at the time was a fair price.

Contrary to popular belief, it is very hard to make a living in Athens in small business, let alone a small business with a really tight profit margin (e.g. alcohol RETAIL, which is VERY different from selling alcohol at a bar or restaurant). Since then, I have struggled through years of high monthly mortgages, taxes and other necessary expenses, all in the name of the love I had for that little brick building and my coveted business on Stimson Avenue. I worked tirelessly day and night for years in order to make the business work and to avoid payroll being a huge expense.

I trained with master sommeliers all over the country in hopes that with this knowledge, myself and BellaVino would be the only place people thought of when they went to purchase their beverages. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

I remember when I came to the sad realization that as much as people push for others to shop local businesses around Athens, I ended up behind many of those same people in the checkout line at Kroger staring at their multiple six-packs of beer and bottles of wine. It has gotten to the point that my husband has to do all of the grocery shopping because I am literally heartbroken when I see old family friends buying the exact same wines for the same price at Kroger.

In order for a business to be successful, especially a small one, it is imperative that the owner is present, and by present I mean always there. My long hours were fine until it came to the little issue of my having a growing family and other, newly developed responsibilities. In the past year, I have been unable to work while caring for my terminally ill father, who died in April, finding out shortly thereafter that I was pregnant with my now three-week-old son. It was a must that I step back again due to physical inability.

For those counting: I now have not only a husband and a 6-year-old, but a newborn as well. No longer could I overlook the fact that we have no health insurance, and paychecks in a tiny business are not always a given.

So I made one of the hardest decisions in my life and put BellaVino up for sale. I waited patiently, desperately hoping that someone caring about not only the historic value of the building housing BellaVino, but also the business itself, would come along. Month after month, no one did. The property and business were listed through a local realtor, advertised on the MLS, Facebook and via email repeatedly, but still no offers.

Eventually, Ric Wasserman approached me with an offer to purchase both BellaVino and the property on which it sits, and since no one else had come forward, I sadly accepted the offer, because I had to choose: my family or the store.

What would you choose?

Fortunately, Ric has provided me an out, a way to cut my losses and get out while I still can with the shirt on my back, and I'm thankful for that. Do I want to see all of my hard work literally being torn down? Of course I don't. If you want to judge me for trying to provide for my family instead of going down in flames, sacrificing them and myself in order to subsidize your idea of historic Athens: shame on you. I find it unfortunate that everyone with an idea of what should or shouldn't be done with BellaVino waited literally months to speak up.

And a HUGE thank you, thank you, thank you to all of those friends, family and community members who have been supportive or at least taken the time to understand instead of just chastising me and my decision.