I am proud to announce the informal opening of the new Keg Liquors on October 6th. Same address, new building. For the past 5 months, we have been working on our new facility, a brand spanking new building on our existing property in Clarksville. There is something to be said about having two buildings on a lot that really only fits one. Along the way we have managed to tear up a parking lot, hold our annual beer festival, answer untold questions as to what was going on in our parking lot (I could probably come up with a top 25 list of the best comments/questions asked over this time period, as well as my personal top 25 responses), dealt with petty neighbors, hurricanes, power outages and maintaining our business.
We are nearing the completion of a 5000 square foot building, an upgrade from our existing 2700 square foot, 40 year old building, so we are nearly doubling our space. What does this mean for our customers? As anyone who has done business with me over the past 4 years that I have been running the store, selection has been my hallmark. While I will carry the basics that any liquor store will need, my niche has always been those products that you will not find in most other retailers. My passion is beer, specifically craft and import beers. I've been able to carve a nice niche and build a very respectable collection of beers, and to me the important part of this is also being able to pass the knowledge and love of these products along. My secondary passion is great wines. While I will confess that my beer knowledge is 100 times what my wine knowledge is, I have focused our wine selection on smaller boutique distributors that do not cater to grocery stores, chains, drug stores, ect. Quite like my stance on beer, you will find a few of the basics, but 90% of what I carry you will not find in most stores in the area. This holds somewhat true for liquor as well, but honestly, there are not as many niche products in the liquor industry, but I think we have built a respectable bourbon category, as well as specialty liqueurs. So back to my original question, what does this mean for our customers? Simply put, more. More selections, more space, more events like tastings, bottle signings, etc. Put what we have been doing into a new facility, and it changes the whole dynamic. Not so much of what we have been doing, but where we have been doing it. Better lighting, better atmosphere, more room, but the same quality, knowledge and customer service that you have received in the past.
We've added onto our walk in cooler space, increasing it from 12 doors to 22 doors dedicated to beer. We've increased our cold wine space to 6 doors. We added more square footage for wine, liquor and warm beer. We've added considerable space to hold our tastings and events.
While we are not 100% complete on Monday, we will be operational in the new building. Our plans are to clear out our old building and once that is done, we will level it and make that our new parking area. Once this is done, we plan on holding our true grand opening celebration to truly welcome everyone into our new store, and if nothing, help me get over the past 6 months of construction. After all, I'm just liquor store owner who moonlighted as a general contractor. Stop in and check us out.
