A new wine shop from Popina’s James O’Brien

The Wine Cellar by Popina is coming soon!

A new wine shop is coming to the Columbia Waterfront from Popina’s wine director and sommelier James O’Brien. The Wine Cellar by Popina will open this fall, just a few doors down from the restaurant, in its former private dining space.

James has been a wine geek for some time; he started out as a bartender at Stone House Restaurant in Warren, New Jersey. After graduating from Marist College, he earned a degree at the Institute of Culinary Education’s Culinary Management Course and began working front of house with Danny Meyer’s Tabla and Maialino. He’s always travelling around to undiscovered vineyards, making relationships with grape farmers and wine makers, from Burgundy to California.

If you recall, during the pandemic, the State Liquor Authority allowed restaurants to sell wine & spirits to-go like wine shops; I used to head down to Popina for a family-sized platter of pasta and a few bottles of wine weekly. It’s really where I discovered the restaurant and became friends with James and his former partner, the chef Chris McDade, who now runs Gus’s. That experience of running a little wine shop stayed with James, a little kernel of an idea that will soon get its chance to take root and grow.

James with a bottle of bubbles at Popina.

“We had a test run and the neighborhood was super into it. Popina has been lucky to get a following within the wine community; so a wine shop is a natural extension,” James told me when we spoke over the weekend. “The shop will focus on growers (winemakers) that we love: intentional wines that showcase where it's from with minimal intervention.”

At The Wine Cellar, he’ll carry both natural and conventional wines: “We're not dogmatic on natural vs conventional,” he told me. “We're just looking for good wine that tastes good and speaks of a place.” He’s excited to have the chance to showcase wines that just don’t make it onto Popina’s list for one reason or another. “There's lots of wines that we love that don't make the list at Popina because of space and budget constraints; so this is an opportunity to highlight some new and exciting wines,” he said.

James hopes that his wine shop will be a bit more than just a place to buy a bottle. His aim is for it to become a community hub, a place for gathering and getting to know wines and each other. “I'm also excited to extend Popina's hospitality to the wine shop, giving a little more of a personalized experience whether that's helping people expand their wine vocabulary so they know how to explain what they like or turning them onto something new & unexpected or fine & rare.” In!

The Wine Cellar by Popina will open around Labor Day opening at 153 Columbia Street. Follow here.