St. Petersburg\u2019s pioneering wine bar and bottle shop CellarMasters has closed.<\/p>\n
Owner Ryan Rugg confirmed by phone Nov. 4 that \u201cthe business is done.\u201d<\/p>\n
The popular wine shop at 1005 First Ave. N. has been credited with ushering in the now-robust natural and low-intervention wine scene in St. Pete. Many current local spots with a focus on natural wines can trace their lineage to CellarMasters.<\/p>\n
On Oct. 29, doors were locked hours after the spot typically opened. Two would-be patrons peered into the heavily tinted glass door then checked their phones. On Nov. 4, dozens of sealed boxes were seen through the window, lined up around the perimeter of the retail side of the space.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no one thing to blame, but after the hurricanes last year, you know, I lost a lot of clientele,\u201d Rugg, 41, said. \u201cThe numbers are going down, and not up, and it doesn\u2019t seem to matter what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rugg said other factors that contributed to CellarMasters\u2019 closure were new wine places opening in St. Pete that catered to a similar crowd, and not being able to retain repeat clientele who spend at a higher price point.<\/p>\n
CellarMasters had a reputation for doing things a little differently.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was trying to get a younger clientele into wine, and the way to do that is to take all of the shielding and the stuffiness out of what wine is to people,\u201d Rugg said. \u201cWe provided access.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next for Rugg? A veteran with 20 years in the wine business, he\u2019s made wine, and managed and sold wine wholesale and retail.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think for me it might be onward and upward to something different completely,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know, this has been a tough landing. I worked really hard and I built that place myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe captivated a younger clientele at a time that was important and hopefully that lives on.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rugg and then-partner Kory Lynn opened CellarMasters in 2020, during the pandemic. The timing forced them to initially focus on retail, online ordering and curbside pickup. The wine bar was designed as a hybrid concept, with a retail area on one side and a lounge on the other where you could enjoy a bottle you just bought, plus wine by the glass and beer.<\/p>\n
Despite never having a printed menu, the self-proclaimed \u201cdive bar\u201d rapidly became a hub for wine lovers seeking what they dubbed \u201cnatty\/minimal stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"St. Petersburg\u2019s pioneering wine bar and bottle shop CellarMasters has closed. Owner Ryan Rugg confirmed by phone Nov.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":36396,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[23476,596,25138,202,204,203,199,201,200,25137],"class_list":{"0":"post-36395","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-cellarmasters","9":"tag-pinellas-county","10":"tag-ryan-rugg","11":"tag-st-pete","12":"tag-st-pete-headlines","13":"tag-st-pete-news","14":"tag-st-petersburg","15":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","16":"tag-st-petersburg-news","17":"tag-wine-cellar"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}