After Three Years of Bureaucracy Penny Lane Spirits is Now Open
By CATHOLINE BUTLER
VANCOUVER - Brian Hunter, the proprietor of the popular Penny Lane Neighbourhood Pub at 41st and Main Street, recently opened Penny Lane Spirits – a full service liquor store which stocks cold beer, wine, liquor, coolers and ciders.
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OWNER BRIAN HUNTER and Ginger Di Salvo at the opening of Penny Lane Spirits.
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Brian is well-known in both the Celtic community and in the neighbourhood surrounding his Main Street business. A respected businessman, he has been the owner and manager of the Penny Lane Pub since 1994. Prior to that, he spent 20 years with Molson Brewery as a sales representative and as a sales and promotions manager.
When I dropped in recently to talk to Brian about his new location, the store had only been opened two days. Brian had spent the previous weekend stocking the store with product and getting reading for opening day.
“I’ve done all my exercise for the week,” he joked, “we unloaded eight skids of beer, which is about 240 dozen per skid, so with 2,000 dozen beer...I had my work cut out for me. It takes time to stock the shelves and find the right places for everything. We’re planning special tasting events at the store along with several prizes. We will also have a draw for a barbeque in July. Lots of fun things are being planned,” he said.
Under the licensing regulations the store is designated as a replacement store, so they are permitted to carry everything. The term replacement is used when one store closes down and the city allows another store to open up – that is called a replacement store. Brian said, “we are actually one of two replacement stores in the city. We are replacing the store that closed down at 47th and Victoria Drive. That is how the licensing works, it’s pretty stringent.”
It took three years of bureaucracy before the store was finally up and running. Brian said, “We originally wanted to open beside the Penny Lane Pub, but unfortunately the neighbours thought it was going to be too much of a hassle.
“We had several meetings with the neighbourhood here at our new location to assure them that we would work closely with them to make sure we don’t have the problems they seem to think a liquor store will bring to the area. In our years of operation at the Penny Lane Pub, we’ve had no problems with the police. We’re very careful to check ID’s and ensure that people are the proper age to be served in the pub. It is our intention to operate this location in a similar manner.”
The Penny Lane Spirits store is set-up with a large walk-in cooler which allows the customer to walk-in and select their product or they can choose their product from the displays in the front of the store. While the store is not as large as some of the bigger liquor stores, customers will find all their favourite brands here and some that the larger stores don’t carry.
The store will also stock a number of wine selections not found at other liquor stores since Penny Lane Spirits will be buying direct from some of the wineries, also allowing them to offer these selections at a very competitive price.
In closing, Brian said, “many people have a misconception about the privately run cold beer and wine stores and they feel that they will be paying more, whereas the prices are just as competitive and in some cases less expensive.”
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Penny Lane Spirits is located at 6509 Victoria Drive (49th and Victoria) in Vancouver.
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