One chilly winter night, not so long ago, my partner and I were looking for a great place to eat. We stumbled into Spasso in Minnetonka, a cute little Italian joint we'd been wanting to try out.
When we went to the front to put our name on the wait list, the employee said, "You should go check out The Wine Shop. It's connected to the restaurant through that interior door. You can pick out a bottle of wine and bring it back in here, and we won't charge a corking fee."
That sounded great, so we walked into The Wine Shop.
Tip: Every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday night, The Wine Shop does free tastings! Seriously. You can usually sample from 4-5 bottles of some really great wines.
The decor here is pretty great, too. Lots of dark wood, low-ish lighting, which I like in a wine shop, and a really good variety of wines and other liquors. I was particularly impressed to see some hard liquors that were reasonably priced - some were even what I'd consider really cheap!
The employees here were incredibly helpful, too. I mentioned that I liked sweeter wines while my partner liked more dry ones. The nice lady helping us showed us a bottle and assured us it would meet both of our needs. And ... it did!
You can enter either through Spasso or through their front door - this is a really easy place to get in, grab a good bottle of booze, and head home quickly. Definitely a real winner when it comes to liquor stores, and their huge sampling of various wines will make it a must-stop for me. read more