Vino

In 1999, when I was hired at Merchant of Vino, what I call the bastard child of Whole Foods Market, I was just looking for a discount and another part-time job to pay the bills. I had just quit Gratzi, a coffeehouse at Briarwood Mall, because the manager and I did not get along. I was working at Sylvan as a tutor and I was soon to pick up a job tutoring Alison, a 7th grader recovering from leukemia. Plus, it was 2 blocks from our apartment.

Although I was only at Merchant of Vino for about a year, I really enjoyed it. My work in the deli was fun at a time when the store was changing: they renovated the bakery and added a salad bar while was I there. When they redid the bakery, a few of us wrote our name and “Deli rocks” in the cement before they laid the tile. The deli seemed to be where the action was, since we were next to the front door and worked closely with produce while regularly serving staff from wine, cashiers, and meat.

The best part was the people. I still say that my manager in the department, former butcher turned cheese expert Holly Barr, is the best boss I’ve ever had. She knew how to be friends with her co-workers while still being in charge. She regularly scheduled outings to bars and bowling with us to build team spirit, but once we were back at work, she required us to be adult and kind to each other. It was the first time I’d encountered a single working mom, and she blew me away with her devotion and her determination; she held this job down while going to school. She was even able to handle Lucci, the chef and caterer, who no one ever crossed except Holly. Somehow, he listened to her, even when she said he was wrong. Then there was Kiki (the flirt from San Jose), Tony (the wisecracker), Sonya (the older and “more experienced” talker), Joyce (the retiree who turned me on to scrapbooking) and Dominic (formerly produce, now caterer under Lucci – I still can’t think of Vertical Horizon’s “Everything You Want” without thinking of him). All of these people were my friends, if only for a little while.

There were other benefits to my time at Vino, too. I was working lots of early mornings and weekends, and I always brought home lunchmeat and cheeses to make Joe’s lunches with. We tried almost every prepared food the deli and bakery offered, sometimes just before it passed its expiration date. When we had football parties or a friend like Donna was in town, we always got meals for free or deeply discounted prices. The Christmas I worked at Vino, I even made expensive sampler baskets of food for my godparents and grandparents, since I didn’t have time to make something by hand. Lots of people at Vino were trying to get me to go full-time (32 hours), since it also gave me benefits, a retirement savings plan, and paid volunteer hours. But I never got the chance to do it.

Whenever I walk into a Whole Foods, I still feel some kind of nostalgia for that time in my life. I still think about going back sometime in the future, but I won’t know if that’s in the stars for me until it happens. The Merchant of Vino I used to work out is no longer a Whole Foods, and they've eliminated a lot of the regular food in favor of expanding the alcohol section, so I can't go back there.