Getting Closer: 530 Wine Bar Update

Everyone is so excited about getting the 530 Wine Bar to opening day, including our many new potential patrons. Unfortunately, we can’t give you the opening date just yet…but we are getting much closer.

Tom Welsh is the new 530 Wine Bar general manager.

Our New General Manager

This week allow me to introduce you to one of the guys who is working hard to get the wine bar open. Tom Welsh is our new general manager of the 530 Wine Bar. Tom and I have been close friends for 10 years or more. We have consumed a number of bottles of wine together, as friends do.

Since Tom joined the team in September, we sure have tasted a lot of wines together. A veteran with 35+ years in the food service/hospitality industry, Tom will run the day-to-day operations of the 530 Wine Bar. Tom is a Level 2 Certified Sommelier of the Court of Master Sommeliers certification program. Tom came to the 530 Wine Bar after spending a year managing the extensive wine department for Chalet Party Shoppes. He was previously the owner, Sommelier and operating partner of Tapastrie restaurant in South Bend. He was the creator of Tapastrie’s wine list which won the South Bend Tribune’s Reader’s Choice Award for Best Wine List and the Wine Spectator Award of Excellence every year.

The new 530 Wine Bar sign is up!

Here is the wine bar update

Last week was a very busy week as we continue to work on many items that need to be in place before we can open the wine bar. The City of Elkhart Building Department came to inspect the bar for our occupancy permit. Thanks go out to Tim Vistine and his team for checking us out and providing good advice on several items. We will receive our permit!

The next and final inspection that we need is from the Elkhart County Health Department. They have very high standards which is good. I am hoping we have we have covered all the requirements. We need our Health Department license to open the bar.

This tomato goat cheese tart will be on the menu at the 530 Wine Bar. It features cherry tomatoes, pesto, and goat cheese.

It is unbelievable how many little things that keep popping up that need to be done. I keep making “to do” lists and they seem to get longer rather than shorter.

For example, we have had to change the felt base glides on all the chairs and bar stools. The old ones scratched the new vinyl floor. With 45 plus chairs and stools, this is almost a full-day project.

Getting all the glasses we need is another big item. We need beer glasses, wine glasses, small flight glasses and water glasses.

We have to get the automatic pouring machines set up, which requires internet cabling, argon gas and reader cards. All of this is under way…it just takes time.

Last Friday we had a tasting of a number of various items on our menu. Chef Jeremy prepared the dishes and we all had a taste and had photographs taken for our website.

Things seem to take so much time and there are more and more questions we are addressing. Questions such as do we get name tags for the wine lockers? Do we have enough silverware? What kind of napkins should we use? The list goes on and on. Right now, there just seems to be not enough hours in the day. It will all be worth it when we all sit in the 530 Wine Bar and enjoy a great glass of wine.

As always, I appreciate your support of our wine blog and encourage you to share it with family and friends. If you care to share your comments on this blog posting or other topics, please do so in the comments section below.

Until next week,
Cheers