A Look Inside St. Paul's Newest Liquor Shop - Revival Wine Beer and Spirits

Revival Wine Beer and Spirits has been open for almost exactly four months in the Pioneer Endicott building, and we thought it was about time for us to sit down and chat with owner Jeff Huff about business so far.

Jeff and Pepin at Revival

It is about 1:30pm on a Tuesday afternoon and owner Jeff Huff is busy working behind the counter and playing with his adorable dog Pepin (yes, you can bring your dog to work in the pet-friendly Pioneer Endicott building!). The sunlight is shining through the vast windows in an idyllic way, and the views of downtown St. Paul are picture-worthy. The high ceilings and hardwood floors create a fitting contrast to the tall modern black shelving throughout the shop, and original art hangs decorously on the walls. Revival Wine Beer and Spirits manages to combine old and new in a way that is essentially perfect. Jeff says that inspiration for the aesthetics of the shop, as well as the name Revival, came from the architecture of the Pioneer Endicott building. "It's romanesque revival. I wanted to honor the architectural element of the building. So I went with Revival and the fact that it kind of has something to do with what's going on in this neighborhood; there's a good revival in the whole building. I just liked it." We're glad, because we like it too!

Jeff hops up to sit on the counter and tells us a bit more about how he chose Lowertown as the neighborhood for his second liquor store (he sold the first one two years ago) "I lived down here [Lowertown] seven years ago ... I saw this space and I knew it was going to be a nice location. I kind of wanted to get back downtown St. Paul; there's a good vibe here right now... I also liked the idea of opening in the Skyway in a residential area."

Photo Courtesy Revival Wine Beer & Spirits

It is this kind of forward thinking that is helping to redevelop Lowertown, and Jeff says that he thinks people are really starting to appreciate and take advantage of the convenience of businesses like his, "There's a lot of business people coming through and it's fun talking with them. It's interesting being down here [Lowertown] because you get to know two different kinds of 'day.' You get this afternoon thing from 11:00am to 2:00pm where it's mostly business professionals that are coming through to look at the inventory, you know, seeing what we have while they're on their breaks or stretching their legs. Then they'll come in after work around 4:00 or 4:30 and pick up something that they saw earlier; they don't necessarily want to bring liquor back to the office! Then there's a little bit of a lull until the residential community gets back home. Then they start coming in around 5:00pm."

Part of the impressive beer selection at Revival

Jeff stops to help a customer and directs him to one of the cases displaying a beer he was looking for. Of course Revival had just the beer the customer wanted, and we wondered why that was since it was a specific type. Jeff explained that "what it comes down to is what the customer base is. You have to know who your customer is, what your customer wants, and you've got to pay attention to what they're asking for. I talk to them when they come in, and that kind of dictates my inventory. Eventually, if I brought in everything that I liked, I might go out of business, so you have to definitely pay attention to your customer."

Just a small selection of the wines at Revival

Now we're intrigued about the large variety of wines, beers, and liquors in the shop, so we ask Jeff to show us around. The wine is all organized by country and region, and there are A LOT of regions in France and Italy!  Most of the domestics are from California, Washington, and Oregon, with a select few from Minnesota.  It's a good, rounded selection that covers all of the bases.

When it comes to beer choices, you'll have plenty."I'm starting to bring in more small distilled spirits.  Jeff explains, "there's more and more local distilleries ... the focus here is on the variety of craft beers, so we offer a build-your-own six pack. There are a lot of Belgians, a lot of imported beer, and tons of local breweries: Summit, Indeed, Surly, Bad Weather, and Fulton for example."
The selection of spirits is just as impressive as that of the wine and beer.  In Jeff's own words, "There's a ton of vodka, a ton of liqueurs, and a ton of scotches." He points out the Wisconsin vodkas and gins, as well as the small batch distilled (by hand) vodka from Wander North Distillery in Northeast Minneapolis. It's clear that Jeff appreciates unique and local beers and spirits as much as the next St. Paulite :).

Build your own 6-pack!

It seems like a good time for a drink, so we ask Jeff about tastings.  He told us there was not one planned for that day (we hope we didn't look visibly disappointed) but that they were scheduled regularly.  "There is no schedule yet, but they are from 4:00 - 7:00pm. that's the one thing that's given. I'll probably do more Saturday afternoon ones, you know in the winter." You can stay up-to-date on the upcoming samplings on Revival's website. Jeff will be sampling wines during the Saint Paul Art Crawl (October 10th & 11th). They are free, and people come and go as they please. "I usually pour five or six different things, it's really cool." We agree.

One last thing we wanted to discuss was the beautiful painting hanging on the wall. Jeff informed us that it was a piece on loan from our friends at the Minnesota Museum of American Art (ground floor of the Pioneer Endicott building) that they just acquired from a local artist.  "This will rotate as far as putting art on the wall, you know, it's such a perfect wall." It really is, you should stop in to see it! Jeff hopes to eventually have five or six pieces of art from local artists in Lowertown displayed on all of the walls.

We're finishing up and starting to take a few photographs when Jeff adds, "It's fun. This is a fun place to be. There's a lot of really fun people that live in this apartment, particularly Pioneer Endicott, but I'm meeting a lot of people from a lot of the neighboring places too." We couldn't have said it better ourselves.

Jeff helping us pick out a bottle!