New Spirits Unlimited in the Crossroads Shopping Center, Toms River.

We are VERY excited to announce that our new store discount liquor store is open as of February 1st.  Located at the new Crossroads Center in Toms River, at the corner of Routes 37 and 166 (at the Crossroads of the Garden State Parkway), this 8,000 square foot store has been an exciting project to put together and has some very interesting features.

This store will open with a twelve tap Growler Station, which will dispense an ever-changing lineup of fresh draft beer selections that you can sample and take home in a 64oz Growler Bottle.  This concept is relatively new and there are only about two dozen of these in the state.  Their numbers are limited by the fact that the operator needs to have a very specific type of liquor license (of which the state no longer issues) and five of our Spirits Unlimited locations (Middletown, Point Pleasant Beach, Brick, Bayville and Manahawkin) have those licenses.

While on the topic of beer, we will have an incredible selection of packaged beer as well.  There are twenty five beer cooler doors and an entire store aisle stocked with craft beers and beer displays.  This store will be a beer enthusiast’s dream!

On the liquor side of things, Crossroads will have the extensive selection that Spirits Unlimited is known for and feature an admirable collection of high end cognac, scotch, tequila and rum.  This niche collection will be displayed in a custom made display case that will be one of the focal points of the store.

Speaking of display cases, wait till you see the wine locker.  A three door, climate-controlled storage unit that will be stocked with a carefully chosen collection of high-end wines.  In support of this wine program, we’ve installed a tasting station. Our new wine dispensing system will enable customers to sample from a rotating selection of twelve different wines!

Opening Line Up for the Growler Station

Keegan “Mothers Milk”
Sierra Nevada “Ruthless”
Southern Tier “Iniquity”
Firestone Walker “Double Jack”
Kane “Head High”
Port “Mongo”
Unibroue “Tres Pistoles”
DogFish Head “Namaste”
DogFish Head “Palo Santo Maron”
Weyerbacher “Merry Monk”
Lost Abbey “Lost & Found”
Troegs “Mad Elf” – Featured on the New Jersey Craft Beer tap

On Deck…

Kane “Drift Line”
DogFish Head “Immortal”
McNeil’s “Dark Angel”
Yards “General Washington Porter”
Port “WipeOut”

We would like to thank everyone who participated in voting for the featured New Jersey Craft Beer Tap. One of the lucky NJCB members that voted will receive a Gift Card to The Spot Pizza Grill. Congratulations!

We’ve assembled a great team to serve you and have quite an exciting opening program featuring in-store giveaways and special events to get 2012 off to a great start.  The Grand Opening will be Saturday, February 4th; we welcome Carl & Marty from the WRAT morning show for a live remote broadcast from 2-4 pm at our new store.  The Rat Pack will be giving away prizes and we will have an incredible lineup of draft craft to sample.  Discounted Growler fills during the WRAT promo are also available.

You can also check us out on Facebook for more updates.

Donny

I gotta tell you – I was fortunate to participate in a “cheese night” event at a local restaurant recently and found a couple new favorites to add to my list.  These were a little more esoteric in nature – and you might not find them easily locally – but remember these two names for when you might be somewhere that sells a wide variety of fromage.  Beemster XO and Rogue Blue.  The first is an aged Holland Gouda that has crystallization like you’d find in an older Reggiano, but with a butterscotch-like flavor that was exquisite and pairs well with Chardonnay!  The blue was from Oregon and smoked over a fire of hazelnut shells.  Awesome with a big bold red wine!

The real reason for this story today is to remind you that some crusty bread, a little cheese and a bottle of wine makes for a great snack and I consider it great “kindling” to start a party “fire.”  If you want to invite the neighbors over or get together with some friends you haven’t seen – the enticement of BCW is a great motivator!  BCW (bread, cheese, wine) would be a great Christmas Eve treat or a New Year’s Day snack.

While I’m on the subject – there are a few places in Ocean & Monmouth County that I’d recommend if you are looking for a cheese selection above and beyond the run-of-the-mill offerings.  Joe Leone’s in Point Pleasant Beach has some incredible specialty Italian cheeses.  I love that store!  If you are in the vicinity of Ocean Township, Wegman’s has a nice cheese counter with some helpful staff to assist you.  But the most surprising outlet for a diverse assortment is the new Shop-Rite at the Crossroads Center in Toms River.  Bought some Humboldt Fog there last week at a very fair price.  Glad to see a supermarket raising the bar in my home town.  The fact that it’s next door to my office makes it even easier to support their efforts.

If you love cheese, let me know where you go for a good selection.

Donny Sanders

P.S. I’m currently flying back from Florida with three pieces of cheese and ice gel packs in my luggage.  An expensive proposition – especially with Spirit Airline’s luggage policy – but as I said earlier, I LOVE CHEESE!

In my almost 30 years as a wine retailer, and a HUGE fan of the BYOB (Bring Your Own Bottle) concept, it was never more clear to me that the synergy between wine retailers and BYO’s is mutually beneficial.  The wine retailer, especially one that has good BYO’s close to their store, makes a sale – just because there is a good place close by for their customers to go.  When that wine joins good food, nice glassware and attentive service, it makes for a positive dining experience – and is usually repeated, over and over again.

A restaurant benefits from the recommendations that wine shop personnel give to their customers.  There is something to be said for restaurants that are smart enough to cultivate a relationship with us wine retailers.  Not only can we “talk up” their place, but when we get to know their menu, we can give great advice on bottles of wine that pair perfectly – further enhancing the dining experience – further enhancing the probability of a repeat customer to that dining room.  Not to mention the “What a great meal I had last night…” buzz that usually follows.

My moment of clarity was in the completely full dining room of Serenity Cafe in Toms River on a rainy Tuesday night.  I watched people, without reservations, come into the busy storefront bistro only to be gently turned away because every table was full.  They “didn’t think they would need a reservation on a rainy, winter Tuesday night.”  They took their bottle of wine elsewhere.  I hope they had a nice meal – I sure did!

Cheers!
Donny

Six Degrees of Separation:  Spirits Unlimited ——–> The Super Bowl

Are you familiar with the concept where two seemingly unrelated things (or people) can be connected together through an unpredictable series of connections in five moves?  Even if you are not, try to follow along – it makes for a great story.

1) I work for Spirits Unlimited, and through some great fortune and a little luck, I was asked to be a guest of the New York Giants to fly to San Francisco to watch the Giants play the San Francisco 49ers.

2) The hotel they chose to have our group stay at was located in the Napa Valley.  Spirits Unlimited happens to sell quite a few things that originate in the Napa Valley.

3) The Napa Valley has many famous golf courses.  On a day that I was offered the chance to play one of those beautiful courses, I respectfully declined.  I have no right to take my awful golf game and tear up a beautifully landscaped parcel of and. I’m much better at sampling the end results of grapes grown at other parcels of land just down the road.

4) Hundreds of wineries to visit, only a few hours to work with.  I had a standing invitation to visit one place in particular and the offer to go off the beaten track to visit their “prized parcel” a dry farmed Zinfandel planted in 1908!  So my first choice of visits was to Vermeil Winery.

5) This winery is owned by NFL coaching legend, Dick Vermeil.  ”Coach” has, on display in his tasting room, the Vince Lombardi trophy he won as the winning coach of the St. Louis Rams.  So, I connected Spirits Unlimited to the Super Bowl in only five moves!  Impressive.

6) How’s this for even more impressive?  That same night I was at a dinner party and had the pleasure of sitting next to New York Giants legend, George Martin. Giants fans know George at having some big plays in SuperBowl XXI and their big win over the Broncos.  Most memorable, was George’s safety of John Elway that turned the tide of the come from behind victory.  So I told George about my close encounter with the Lombardi Trophy earlier in the day and he says “wouldn’t it be cool if I let you try on my Super Bowl ring?”

He was right – it was very cool!  And there you have six degrees of separation linking Spirits Unlimited to the Super Bowl.
Cheers, Donny Sanders.

(Sort of ironic that the Giants and the 49ers are both having great seasons.  Maybe one of them will represent the NFC in this next Super Bowl — against my Patriots!)

I’m on my way to California for an action-packed 72 hour business trip that includes a “free day” in the Napa Valley!  The rest of the trip itinerary has me pretty busy with group travel and activities in and around San Francisco.  But, since I don’t play golf (at least not very well) and took a “pass” on an offer for a “spa day”, I’m left with an entire Saturday to continue my exploration of California Wine Country.  Since my last trip a few years back, there are new wineries, new restaurants and new chefs to get to know.  So where do I begin?

I’m gonna squeeze as much out of this trip as I can and already have a few places to visit and people to see but I’m hoping to “take you along with me”.  I’m going to document the trip with the help of modern technology – a digital camera, my cell phone and my I-Pad.  I’ll be blogging throughout the weekend and plan to come back with great, new stories one of my favorite places in the world.  Feel free to follow along and post comments or questions while I’m there.

Here’s a cool story… Prior to me being asked to go on this trip, I had made arrangements for a group of my friends who were visiting Napa to spend some time at one of my favorite wineries – on this same exact weekend!  Can’t wait to see their faces when I greet them at Silver Oak Winery. Could be good YouTube video in the making…

Life is Good!

Donny Sanders

To say I had writer’s block was an understatement.  This piece was “due” to be written yesterday and I’ve decided to tell you about my day so that I could drive home this point…

…How many people do you know taste twelve different wines before lunch?  I take my job very seriously and I happily pass along the results of my extensive research to my co-workers and the customers of Spirits Unlimited.  I know, it’s tough work to challenge my senses of sight, smell and taste – but I take my responsibility passionately.  The fact that the by-product of my tasting all those wines today gave me inspiration for today’s blog is very fortunate for me.

What did I learn today?  There are a slew of new wines coming to Spirits Unlimited in the very near future that are tremendous.  If I wasn’t so busy today, I would have had space in this blog to tell you about some of them.
Stay tuned……

Donny Sanders
Wine Ambassador
Spirits Unlimited

This reminds me of the hypothetical question – if you could invite any five people to dinner, who would they be?

Here’s what I’m thinking…

I approached this from the premise that I’d invite people I’ve found most interesting.  As I’ve always been a James Bond fan, I think my first guest would be Sean Connery (circa 1970).  So, I’m thinking we’d have some Bollinger Champagne to start the meal.

I’d also like to invite a great storyteller as guest #2, and David Bowie gets the nod.  Dinner music would be selections from “The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust” and “Young Americans” – my two favorite albums.

Gotta have some ladies at the table, so why not invite two that “bring something to the table” – literally.  Lidia Bastianich, the chef, and Helen Turley, the winemaker.  Imagine the meal and the wines that we could have!

To round out my group I gonna go out on a limb.  After all, Bond, Bowie and the ladies would make great dinner companions, but after that meal I’m gonna be looking for someone who will want to go out and get a little crazy.  He might not have the best table manners but wouldn’t it be cool to go out on the town with John Belushi.  It’s my “dream team” and by my rules I can bring people back from the dead.  And it’s Halloween!

Tell me who would be in your group.  If you are relaxing with a nice bottle of wine, like I am, the imagination and the creativity comes naturally.

Cheers!
Donny Sanders

The build up and promotion of BEERFEST included five Friday morning visits to the WRAT radio station studio in Lake Como (formerly South Belmar) by myself and my colleague, Scott.  Our job was to bring beer that would be available at the festival and open them up to share while “on the air” with the WRAT Morning Crew.  What an experience that was!

The trio of Carl Craft, Marty Martinez and “Gotts” were awesome to get to know through this unique arrangement and it helped show the morning listeners the quality and diversity of the lineup of beers at this inaugural event.  The “behind the scenes” radio personnel seemed to always show up early to work on Friday mornings to “call dibs on the leftovers”.  Each week, as Scott and I (the “Beer Guys” as we were named) drove away from the studio, we were hopeful that our efforts would help get a good turnout on October 8th.

In the two weeks leading up to the event, we started to get some ticket sales information from the promoters.  I gotta admit, I was a little concerned that six days prior to BEERFEST, we were hearing only 1100 tickets were sold.  The morning before the event, we went on the air and the number was at 1300.  Somewhat disappointing I thought, but the forecast was calling for a beautiful weekend – so we all hoped for a large walk-up.  The next morning, I arrived in Asbury Park and WOW, almost magically, we were at 2100 tickets sold.  The walk-up that afternoon was outstanding and unfortunately for some people, both sessions SOLD OUT and we were rewarded with almost 3000 people in the house!  We had to turn away a couple hundred people that took the chance that the event wouldn’t sell out.  Although it came together late – it exceeded everyone’s expectations.  I am very proud to have been a part of it.

A HUGE SUCCESS for all parties involved! I believe Spirits Unlimited got quite a bit out of our sponsorship, and the quality of this event will lead us to future involvement at other events of this nature.  Personally, I very much look forward to working with these same people again – especially the fine folks at WRAT.

Cheers!

Donny Sanders

Share your WRAT Asbury Park Beerfest 2011 pictures with us on our Facebook.

Fast forward thirty five years and I’m sure that today’s stock people must be saying “why are there so many FLAVORS of vodka?”

I just spent the last few days helping out with a remodel and shelf set changeover at one of our stores.  It happened to be a very large 8000 square foot monster of a store with what seemed like hundreds of different vodkas in that section.  Sure there are more brands than there were back in the 70′s, but what is mind-boggling to me is the range of flavors.

Nobody blinks twice when citrus, orange or cherry flavors are mentioned, but did you know that there is Bacon flavored vodka?  How about Whipped Cream, Swedish Fish (the candy, not kippers), and Butterscotch?  What can you do with Marshmallow flavored vodka?  Whatever you do, don’t mix it with Cinnamon, Cotton Candy or Bubble Gum flavors.

There’s an old expression, stop and smell the roses.  The modern day liquor store equivalent would be to stop and shop the vodka aisle at Spirits Unlimited.  It can take you a while to comprehend all of the choices and possible drink recipes you can experiment with.  Trust me, I’ve barely scratched the surface of the range of flavors that are available.  And boy, do they sell quickly!

What are your favorite flavors?

Donny Sanders