Brian: 0:11

Well, welcome back to the Vero Beach Podcast. I'm Brian and I'm Shauna, and today we are sitting here at the Vino Vero with Dana. So, dana, we're so excited to have you on the podcast.

Dana: 0:20

Thank you for having me. Yes, yeah, it's. What a cool place. Oh, thank you so much. It's fun to have you here, yes.

Shawna: 0:27

It's so much fun and of course, we've been here to visit you before. I'm just going to describe what it looks like for someone who's never been here before.

Dana: 0:34

Oh, I love this Okay.

Shawna: 0:35

So you walk in and immediately you just feel welcomed by a big warm hug of wine, walls of wine, beautiful, sparkly bottles of wine, and you have such a cool decorating style. I love your little plants around and I do. I love, I mean, plants.

Dana: 0:53

There's a lot of plants. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love the plants Absolutely. It's all about, like, the little touches. Yeah, I'm constantly reorganizing it. I think that's if I have any downtime, I'm pushing things around, I'm switching it up. I love that.

Shawna: 1:06

I love that. I did notice I was like some things seem a little bit different, but I love your paintings and your art, your prints, the map oh, I love that. I love a map.

Dana: 1:18

Yes, that's actually like a little quick drop off and pick up. Hopefully that'll happen. This week Someone's donating it to a little family that has kids. I'm like, if they don't pick it up, that'll be mine. Not that I'm a good surfer, but I will always continue to attempt.

Shawna: 1:33

Yes, but yeah super cute.

Dana: 1:35

Yeah, there's a lot of little things. Yeah, I have a little artist that just gave me that photo of my dog that's usually at the shop with me, and then the prints are actually photographs of a local photographer. His name's Todd Marty, and so, yeah, that one's Maui and that one's Venice, florida. So those are beautiful beautiful pieces that he's got hanging up here.

Shawna: 1:55

Yeah, the thing I love about how you have this set up is you know when we came in and spent an evening here. So when you first walk in, there's kind of a bar right down the middle of the shop and everyone just kind of gathers around and talks and gets to know each other. I've never been to a place like that before. You know, normally at a restaurant or a bar or a wine bar the few I've ever been to you're like in your own little space at a table or whatever, enjoying like whoever you came with. But this it's teeny, tiny little space and you just automatically are going to get to know who's there with you because there's nowhere to be away from the other people which I love.

Shawna: 2:30

I thought it was a blast. And it's kind of awkward if you haven't talked to someone. You're like I need to go talk to them, like we're all here in the same space. I don't want them to feel like left out. So I think it's a really really fun design. Oh, I love that.

Dana: 2:43

That makes me so happy. Yes, I have good friends that joke that it's kind of like hanging out at someone's kitchen and that's very much a vibe that I, you know, envisioned for it.

Brian: 2:52

So, Dana, tell us a little bit. Maybe take about 30 seconds. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Dana: 2:56

Oh my gosh. Okay About myself with Sands Wine Bar, with just about myself, dana.

Shawna: 3:01

I am from.

Dana: 3:02

Colorado, born and raised, but my family is Canadian originally, so I have dual citizenship. I lived in Colorado to my late twenties big hiking, camping, outdoors family, so that is definitely a big part of my personality. And then I love anything that's hands on and visual. So I love art, film, and then hands on, I mean winemaking, and making wine has been a big part of my adult life and career. But yeah, just doing things that are creative, that you can create things, I love that.

Brian: 3:33

I was going to ask you that later, like if you actually make wine too. Yeah, I did.

Dana: 3:36

I lived in California and a little bit in Oregon off and on. I was going to ask you that later, like if you actually make wine too. Yeah, I did. I lived in California and a little bit in Oregon, off and on. I made wine from 2014 till right before I moved to Florida, so till 2022 at different, various wineries, and then I had a wine label for a couple of years as well, where I did with a business partner, purchased and made wine and then cellared it and bottled it and then had to do sales as well. So the whole caboodle, yeah, the whole gamut.

Dana: 4:01

So that, yeah, that's definitely more of my like approach with wine. I love you, know all, all parts of the industry, but that is more of my true passion, lace.

Brian: 4:10

Awesome. We'll dive into that more in episode two, because I want to learn more about what that, what that process is like and what you love about it. Maybe some things that you hate about it.

Dana: 4:18

I don't know. I'm sure there's things Dislike.

Brian: 4:21

Dislike yes, so how long have you been open here in Vero?

Dana: 4:26

I have been open under Vino Vero since that's a loaded question, which is great because that'll be interesting then I actually helped open it in January of 2023. However, it became my shop in May of that same year, so since May of 23, at first retail location and then morphed into a wine bar within the last year or so. So it's kind of grown and evolved ever since it even started. So I originally opened it with another couple under their vision, and then kind of worked with them for a little while and then eventually bought them out and then it became mine. Something I've always kind of envisioned in my life to eventually get to is have a place like this. That's kind of where my start was. So, yeah, it's been open almost three years. At the turn of the year it's a loaded answer for when it has been mine always, or vino vero because I had a previous name or their name.

Brian: 5:20

So, yeah, it wasn't too long ago. We stopped by here to check it out and had a great time. You're talking about Shauna we met some great people and we were actually having dinner. Where were we having dinner at?

Brian: 5:32

I don't think you should say Okay, I won't think you should say Okay, I won't say where. We were having dinner. We were having dinner and we decided you know what, let's not have drinks here. We're going to go to Vino Vero and have drinks there and have some wine. So it was on a date night and it was actually a lot of fun. We've talked about it over and over, actually, I think we came recently. We're like let's do it and we're like wait a minute.

Shawna: 5:52

Oh yeah, we're not super great at checking hours before we go somewhere.

Brian: 5:56

We're not good at that at all.

Shawna: 5:58

So that is no fault of your own. We were like, oh, of course, I mean in Vero you have to check the hours of businesses. You do, Because people deserve a day off.

Brian: 6:06

So, dana, you mentioned earlier about the portrait, the painting on the wall of your dog, which your dog's name is.

Dana: 6:14

Jaws.

Brian: 6:16

Yes, so have you ever had any? Well, if anybody here is visiting Vero and you hear somebody yelling Jaws at the beach, first look around. It's probably Dana, it's probably her dog.

Shawna: 6:27

But the cutest Corgi you've ever seen. Cute the cutest.

Dana: 6:30

I still can't believe it. He's adorable. Yeah, he's a little Corgi blue healer dog and he stays right at the door, so thankfully in the wintertime I can have the door open and he kind of just welcomes everyone as they come in. But yeah, he's a good little baby. I actually think most of my business is from him, so he's like your little mascot.

Shawna: 6:49

Which is fine, yeah.

Dana: 6:51

Yeah, he's my little mascot, he's her gimmick.

Shawna: 6:54

That's what Ash would say.

Dana: 6:55

Yeah, people will stop by and be like, oh my God, the dog's not here. If he like, god forbid, takes a day off.

Brian: 7:02

Dana, what first drew you into the world of wine?

Dana: 7:06

Oh, love that. It was via beer. My dad was a brewer growing up and that kind of got me interested in just beverage in general. So I think that was like my first introduction into any like fermentation or just like let's make something that we enjoy already, and I thought that was always really cool. But my very first introduction more into like fine wine or drinking wine was I met a gentleman and I his family owned a wine bar and I worked for them for a number of years through my twenties, first in the kitchen, and then they couldn't kind of keep me out of the front area during the once I turned 21, the wine tastings and everything, and so I just kind of dove right in and I eventually worked on the floor bartending and serving wine and helping with tastings and this and that for a number of years. And then I jumped ship. My family was ready to leave home and I kind of, via a year of partying in Chicago, got my first internship in California for a wine harvest.

Dana: 8:00

So 2014, at Costa Brown, and that is where, like I took my all up until then I had been doing, you know, a wine bar setting sales. I had started my sommelier exams and I was kind of going more of the hospitality or, you know, wine, I guess, a different route with wine, more of the wine studies or wine, I guess, service as you would go for consulting with wine lists or working at like a major resort or Michelin restaurant. That was kind of like mainly going to maybe be my plan because I loved working in the restaurant industry and then I love wine at the same time. Then, when I got my first internship, I realized that I could take this love and it kind of align it with who I already was, which is someone that likes to work really hard with my body and with my hands, and I like love, like being like really active and like in it with nature.

Dana: 8:47

I discovered this and it just like clicked. I was able to learn everything I wanted to learn about wine by doing it, and so that kind of it stole my heart. So I kind of changed into more of a production winemaking focus and worked at that winery for about five vintages through 2018. And then I went to another winery in Napa across the hill, and then it just kept going. It just like once I started. I could go on and on, but really just fell in love with it because it was something I could do, that was like manual, that stole my heart for a while, and then I got old, kind of ready to shift it again. I guess life is all about phases.

Brian: 9:22

So you're always shifting. There's always going to be different seasons. You're going to evolve in different areas. Sometimes it feels wrong as a business owner. You feel like I don't want to change. It feels like I'm like is it okay to change with the seasons and what's happening? But then when you start leaning into it, you realize that that change is good, absolutely. So that's cool.

Shawna: 9:39

Yeah, isn't it cool to think about too that the wine industry has so many things that you can plug into that you can just kind of grow through your whole life and different phases of the wine industry. Yeah, that's so interesting, and I mean I never even thought about everything you were saying before about being a part of you know the winemaking and then now you're doing this and it you get to be more part of the I guess, front facing. We are meeting people, talking to people, and my favorite part is you're teaching people. Because you know, I only thought, like okay, I like rosé, that's it.

Shawna: 10:11

Then, when I came in here and you said, what kind of flavors do you like? What do you enjoy? And I told you, and then you just started pulling little tastes of things and so I found so many things that I enjoyed that were so unusual, things I'd never tasted before, and the way you describe them it's so poetic and fun. It's just a really it's a very unique and interesting thing that you're doing. It makes it a whole different experience than if you're just going to the grocery store and picking a bottle off the shelf.

Dana: 10:38

Absolutely yeah, it's, it can and it's should be fun, and that was always my MO with it. So I, yeah, I really appreciate you saying that, because that's my whole goal is to make it enjoyable and easygoing for people.

Brian: 10:51

Yeah, and so what are we? What are we having right now? Because I know you've got. What do you have?

Shawna: 10:55

You have a French rosé.

Brian: 10:57

French rosé, and now I have a red wine. Yes, I'm a big red wine. Yes, you called it bold.

Dana: 11:04

You said it was bold, it's a medium to bold style red from Abruzzo, italy, so on the eastern side of Italy, about halfway down in the Adriatic Sea. So it's a Malta Pucciano de Abruzzo. So it's a Malta Pucciano grape from Abruzzo. So it's a Malta Puccino grape from Abruzzo. This one I love. It's one of my top selling producers for Malta Puccino. I do try to have at least one in store at all times. And then, shauna, you're drinking a Bordeaux blend little rosé from France.

Brian: 11:30

Now I know you said you gave it to me chilled. Do you usually chill it?

Dana: 11:33

Sometimes I will have a chilled red. Usually I don't. I did have that one in the chiller just by happenstance save it a little longer. But I was either going to come back and bring it home for dinner tonight myself or serve it to someone, but then I was like well, if you don't mind a little chill, you might really like it and it's a refreshing little quality. I mean you don't want to chill all your reds, but a cellar temperature for serving is important.

Dana: 12:00

And as it warms, it opens back up and kind of comes alive again.

Brian: 12:04

So take me back to the moment that you decided to take over this location. What was that like? Was it scary? Was it exciting?

Dana: 12:53

Yeah, all of it still is very scary. I mean I kind of touched on it, but it was something I after had, working at the very beginning in a wine bar setting and always restaurants. Growing up, I like started working in this setting again and very quickly realized that I really do love being with, like the community and the public. So I loved being in the retail setting, of course, selling wine. Again, I'm very confident in wine and the wines of the world, so it's very fun to be able to also, like you were saying, shauna, like ask people what they like and recommend a wine and then hearing that it was like one of their favorites or they really enjoyed it, or like I gave it as a gift and she loved.

Dana: 13:30

You know, I moved here from California straight from making wine and out there and kind of doing that day to day working for someone else, and I was offered to make it my own and it was very appealing and I was like name the price. But that was bad because I yeah, I mean at the end of the day you know I was a little impulsive with it I learned a lot of lessons about, you know, managing and being your own business owner and then buying a business, and that's life. I guess you learn as you do it and learn hard ways. But now that I'm here and I was able to kind of see a really tough year of, like you know, figuring out how running, a small business works because I'm not a business major.

Dana: 14:13

No, I kind of sunk my teeth and decided I can either do this or I can like run away from it. Essentially Cause it wasn't my first year, it was like it was fine, I made it, paid my rent, kept the lights on, but it felt very like cringy and grimy and I was like this is not right, so I was gonna sink. And then I was like I need to sink my teeth in and like, do this how I see it and not be so scared. So I don't know if that answered your question.

Brian: 14:37

No, it did. I mean that's. I think, yeah, I think that's so rewarding. When you dig your feet in, you're paying attention to what people are saying.

Brian: 14:44

Yeah, if you weren't doing that, you wouldn't have known what to do. It sounds like something so hard, like how do I turn this around? But it's really. It starts with something so simple just listening to what people are saying. What are they saying to you? So you can lean into that and make this unique for the Vero Beach community? What are they saying they want? What are they saying they need? And you leaned into that and you didn't give up. So congrats on that.

Dana: 15:05

Well, thank you.

Brian: 15:05

Well, Dana, this has been a great episode.

Dana: 15:17

I'm going to ask you one more question before come back. I guess there's a lot of different people in this world and everyone's got different views and backgrounds and foundations and experiences. But, like, at the end of the day, I don't care who you are, where you came from, like I'm going to find something interesting and that I like about you. So when I see someone come back and they were happy about what they purchased and or drank or just what they experienced here because wine can be intimidating it definitely shouldn't be, but it can be so like coming back in and just like feeling like they want to be a part of something that I have here, going like that makes me really happy. That's the most rewarding.

Brian: 15:55

So that's how it it all started. This has been a great uh discussion already, so I'm excited to get into part two to learn more about behind the scenes.

Shawna: 16:01

So with that, catch you next time, neighbor.