Olympia wine bar owner reimagines business to weather pandemic

Olympia has a new gift shop with a focus on cleverly named wine packs like the Call Me a Cab Trio and the Screw You, 2020, with a six-pack of sparklers to celebrate year’s end.

The pop-up shop is in Swing Wine Bar, which hasn’t served food or poured wine since September due to COVID-19, but is festively decorated and selling wine and more online for curbside pickup. It also will host open-house shopping events beginning Dec. 12.

The names of the wine packs evoke the fun titles of Swing’s themed tasting flights, and owner Nicole Butigan is also selling individual bottles and putting together selections — with names like Dynamic Duo or Zoom and Chill — that can be used for online happy hours, virtual wine tastings and what Butigan is calling “girls’ night in.” The idea? Order the same wines you’re getting for friends or colleagues and then get together online to share an experience.

Besides the fermented grape juice — some selected from the bar’s inventory and some purchased specifically for retail sale — Swing is selling gift certificates and a selection of other items including barware, tea sets and such snacks as Jack Daniels praline pecans. (Not everything is online right now, but Butigan is adding new items almost daily.)

A wine aficionado who has passed the preliminary sommelier exam, Butigan aims to choose wines that taste pricier than they are and to set prices at or below normal retail.

While she’d love to make enough money to help pay rent and other ongoing expenses while the restaurant is closed, Butigan said, that’s not the only reason she’s focusing on another segment of the wine business.

“It keeps me thinking about wine and being creative,” she said. “So even if it’s not the biggest moneymaker, it’s good for me to do. It’s been healthy to be coming to the space and working.

“This is something I can do well with the time that I have while I’m helping my children with distance learning,” she added. “It fits in for right now.”

When she temporarily closed Swing in late September, she had been hoping to reopen this month. But rising infection rates and new restrictions aimed at slowing them stopped her.

Now, she’s aiming for February. She’s planning to add gazebos to create more covered but not enclosed spaces in the restaurant’s outdoor space, which overlooks Capitol Lake. She’s thinking about making things cozy with a gas firepit in addition to the heaters that have yet to arrive.

“Anything you try to order right now is back-ordered,” she said. “Everything takes more time than you originally anticipate.”

The expanding timeline isn’t a problem, she said, because she doesn’t think it would be safe for her staff or her customers to open right now, anyway.

“I have a vision for the long term,” she said. “I know that Swing will be open next year. I just don’t know when.”

Swing Wine & Gift Shop

• What: Swing Wine Bar & Café is for now not an eatery but a gift shop.
• Where: 825 Columbia St. SW, Olympia
• Stop in: 1-4 p.m. Dec. 12, 13 and 19 and 4-7 p.m. Dec. 23
• Order online for curbside pickup: https://swing-wine-bar.square.site/
• More information: 360-357-9464

This story was originally published December 7, 2020 at 5:45 AM.