Wes Cowie | Partner & owner Colonial Wine and Beverage

Upon entering Chesterland Ohio’s 50-year-old Colonial Wine and Beverage, expect to be greeted with The Beatles, Motörhead, or Tchaikovsky, followed by a jubilant ‘hey, how’s it going?!’ from owner/partner, Wes Cowie. That endearing engagement portends Cowie’s commitment to service and unmatched working knowledge of wine, especially when it comes to weekend wine dinners – events for which he hosted and cooked long before six feet apart was our new standard of living. 

“Our split personality has been an asset recently,” he said. “I’ve been doing lot more hospitality to make things go. And then overnight [when the Stay At Home Order was implemented], it wasn’t available any more. “What are you gonna’ do?” Adapt or close continues to be the answer. “This has been good for my business, he said. “Do I feel good about that? No, because most of my friends are unemployed right now.” 

As for his approach to the new way of doing business, diametrically opposed to how he formerly “enticed people through the door with weekend wine dinners,” he says it has changed entirely to a model of hospitality. “It was weird, because I was getting really gung-ho about that. And my father [sic] has always been kind like, ’are you sure?’”

His answer? Plan A:

“People can buy wine online. People can’t buy hospitality online.”