Located on Division Street in downtown Manhattan where the Lower East Side and Chinatown meet, Parcelle is also an intersection of sorts as it merges an online wine retailer with a brick-and-mortar bar designed to attract the attention of oenophiles across New York City.
While the wines offered at Parcelle can be complex, the concept is simple: stop in during the day to try some wine and get some advice and recommendations from a sommelier who has previously worked at New York establishments like Pasquale Jones or Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare, then get bottles of your favorite selections delivered to your door the following night. Guests who want further personalized recommendations also have access to their sommelier by email or text message following their in-person visit.
A new way for the national online retailer to connect with established local customers as well as reach new ones, Parcelle is the first hospitality offering from the brand since it was co-founded by Grant Reynolds and Josh Abramson in 2018.
In addition to being open from noon to 6 p.m. for tastings and sommelier suggestions, Parcelle functions as a typical wine bar during the evenings and has a kitchen churning out upscale bar snacks from chef Ron Yan Tuesday through Thursday. Guest chefs will pop in for pop-up dinners on certain evenings. Dinner won’t be available every night at Parcelle, which just opened its doors in July, but by-the-glass options from the bar’s 500-plus bottle wine list, which rotates seasonally, will be. (The rotating array of by-the-glass choices at the bar mirrors the unique wines featured in Parcelle’s monthly subscription program Wine Drop.)
“In the same way that we adjust what we eat, I think there are better wines to drink at certain times of year than others. We’ll continually change the wine list depending on what the weather’s like outside,” Reynolds tells InsideHook. “The menu will adjust too with whatever produce is best at the time. There are certain dishes that are intentionally designed around certain wines that we have. This time of year, we’re not selling a lot of big hearty reds, so the menu’s a little bit lighter. It’ll always be simple, delicious food, but super seasonal.”
Intimate and inviting on the inside with vintage furniture and enough room to host a private party or event, Parcelle is basically a high-end wine shop where you can try before you buy — or just try.
“The idea was really to create a space where people can casually drop by and taste some of the wines we feature on the website that are available for delivery in a nice, cozy, comfortable room on a great block,” Reynolds says. “I think a wine bar is a great place to develop regular customers. It’s a good way for people to really experience the brand in person.”
Customers can’t walk into Parcelle, which will continue to operate its e-commerce business, and grab a bottle of wine to go due to liquor license constraints, but the hope is that guests won’t want to because they’d rather stay for a glass and a chat. “You can’t have a glass of wine or hang out in a wine shop. We figured it’d be better for our customers to experience the brand by tasting the wines rather than just grabbing something off the shelf,” Reynolds says.
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