The city’s famously wine-loving CEO has finally recognized what Fort Greene residents have known for years: The Greene Grape wine store and the neighboring Greene Grape Provisions is the best.
The store won Mayor Bloomberg’s Small Business of the Year Award, which recognizes the great local businesses that know and love our neighborhoods.
“The Greene Grape exemplifies a business that is dedicated to making its neighborhood a better place to live and work,” Rob Walsh, the commissioner of the Department of Small Business Services said last month.
Employees of the Greene Grape don’t just punch the clock, they really love the food and wine they provide. And recently, the provisions store sent its head butcher on a road trip upstate to learn how to use the entire animal when butchering.
“It’s fun to encourage their interests and to pay them for it,” said Greene Grape owner Amy Bennett about fueling her employees’ fancies.
The wine store, which brings in vino from all over the world, but also won an award earlier this year for its support of New York State wines, opened in 2004 and has been so well received in the last five years that Bennett decided to open Greene Grape Provisions last year.
And Bennett said the store plans to continue its wine tasting benefit for the Park Conservancy. The benefit has raised more than $35,000 in the past few years.
And the giving never stops at The Greene Grape. The store owners won the award, but customers got the prize, thanks to free champagne and kir cocktails offered at the wine store the next weekend.
The Greene Grape [753 Fulton Street at S. Portland Avenue in Fort Greene, (718) 797-9463].
