Four Men and a Little Liquor Store

I've been wanting to write about the Park Avenue Liquor Shop for some time. Edible Manhattan gave me the opportunity. Here's the article:

The Goldsteins' Goldmine

By Robert Simonson 

The deceptively small Park Avenue Liquor Shop dwells in the shadows cast by the skyscrapers of east Midtown Manhattan. Beneath the showroom’s floor lie canyons and towers of another sort. Endless cases of wine and spirits are stacked eight feet high. A narrow avenue runs through them, and radiating out to the left and right are even slimmer side streets, just big enough to permit the passage of a very thin man.

The basement runs under the liquor store—and under Liberty Travel next door—and includes a wine cave that Jonathan Goldstein—a member of the third generation of Goldsteins to run the shop—carved out of what was once a ladies’ bathroom. It’s home to the store’s most prized bottles: a 1961 Mouton Rothschild, a ’47 Cheval Blanc, an ’85 Sassicaia. Bottles of Petrus from ’82 and ’53. There’s no wine under $200, and many more above that price.

This remarkable collection is just a fraction of Park Avenue’s holding. There’s more—much more, thousands of cases—across town in a warehouse that used to house the nightclub Tunnel. The Goldsteins can lay their hands on any of those stocks the day they’re asked for. “You could walk out right now with a case of ’82 Petrus,” says Jonathan, 41.

Park Avenue Liquor Shop Debuts Exclusive Tequila

Park Avenue Liquor Shop, the Manhattan liquor oasis, has been in the exclusive whiskey biz for some years, carrying various one-of-a-kind whiskey bottlings, some sources from Tuthilltown's stores and bearing the store's own name.

Now the Goldstein family, which has owned Park Avenue for 50-plus years, is getting into the tequila biz. The shop has acquired what it claims is one of only three existing barrels of tequila from Casa Noble CEO Jose “Pepe” Hermosillo. These casks are known as his “friends & family” barrels and, sez Park Avenue, have never been commercially available. 

Casa Noble Single Barrel Extra Anejo Tequila Aged 7 Years was bottled exclusively for the store. It is certified organic and, in case that weren't enough, Kosher for Passover. The 80 proof, 750ml bottle will retail for $100 is available for purchase now. Only 300 bottles are available. I have tasted a sample. It's dark in color, very smooth, and has a kind of Cognac quality, with all the concomitant flavors. 

The unusually old tequila (by comparison, regular Anejos are aged a minimum of one year) is aged in a single French white oak barrel, made from 100% Blue agave, and triple distilled. Single-barrel Tequila—you don't see that much.