- October 17, 2024
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West Orange County residents can now shop for their favorite drinks closer to home.
ABC Fine Wine & Spirits opened its doors in Winter Garden Friday, May 24.
The 15,000-square-foot building is located in the space formerly occupied by a gym and a CVS at 4110 Winter Garden-Vineland Road.
The one-of-a-kind, next-generation store includes whiskey and wine tasting centers and the company’s largest walk-in humidor for cigars.
The newest location joins several others in the area. The company operates stores in Ocoee, Clermont and Lake Buena Vista.
Sean Kelly, executive vice president of operations and marketing at ABC, said the spot on Winter Garden-Vineland Road was perfect for expansion.
“We were kind of all around the area, but we just had never found a property here that we had liked, that was big enough, was affordable and made sense for us,” he said. “We couldn’t just go anywhere that was available. Because we were patient, we ended up finding what feels like the perfect location. The demographic is fantastic for us. We felt like this was an underserved area from the perspective of ABC. There are so many people from this area who drive to us in other parts of the community. We just wanted to be more local.”
Although ABC purchased the property in September 2023, Kelly said it has taken a long time to reshape the building to make sure it exemplifies the company’s brand.
“It’s not enough to just come in here and gut the place,” he said. “The length of the process includes so many other small things, like getting the colors right, getting the monitors we want and figuring out where all the shelves are going to go. With the exterior, as well, we didn’t want it to just look like the same building that’s been here for a lot of years. We wanted to present it more as an ABC, especially being located at such a busy intersection like this one. Because this store is different from most ABCs, we had to get creative with planning. We had to make sure it looked good.”
CENTRAL FLORIDA NATIVE
ABC Fine Wine & Spirits started in 1936 in downtown Orlando as Jack Holloway’s Friendly Neighborhood Bar, a bar and packaging store, named after the company’s founder.
The family-owned and -operated store currently has more than 123 locations from the Florida Panhandle to Miami, with several more under construction.
The typical ABC store carries more than 10,000 different wines, spirits and beers from popular brands to the company’s exclusive sourced and certified collection of thousands of items found in Florida only at ABC.
In addition, most stores have walk-in humidors that have made ABC one of the top cigar retailers in the country.
The new Winter Garden location houses the company’s largest walk-in humidor. The store is equipped with coolers filled with chilled cases of beer, hard seltzer and premixed canned cocktails, as well as a wide selection of gourmet foods, including cheeses, chocolate and snack items.
Perhaps some of the most unique aspects of the store are the exclusive, private barrel selections, as well as the whiskey and wine tasting centers.
Kelly said the No. 1 change in the newly designed ABC concept is how the company departmentalized the whiskey section of the store.
“Whether it’s bourbon, scotch, Irish, Canadian, Japanese — it’s all in one section that’s meant to feel like you’re walking into a very different part of the shop,” he said. “That’s where you see the barrels. We added a tasting section there that we typically don’t have. Usually, it’s all in one space, but we tried to make it so that you could walk in and it almost feels like its own store.”
The size of the luxury section and the amount of products carried in this ABC location are yet other features that make the location special.
Education also is a large part of the newly designed store.
“What we’ve noticed over the years is that some of our guests, especially around the holidays, will come in; and they don’t necessarily know the difference between a rye and a bourbon,” Kelly said. “We try to educate them with the signs in the store, as well as our videos on the screens and the knowledge of our team members.”
COMMUNITY FOCUS
Kelly said one of ABC’s core missions is to serve the communities where the company serves.
“Our team members have volunteer-based goals attached to their annual goals,” he said. “We have people who are very active in our local communities. It could be a nonprofit, or a food drive or even something they’ve started on their own. We try to get involved with local events where maybe we make donations, and those in executive roles serve on different boards.”
A grand opening for the new location will take place Saturday, June 1, where customers who stop by the store from 3 to 7 p.m. can enter a contest for a chance to win a $250 shopping spree.
