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Hair O' The Dog
Wine • Beer • Spirits in Easton It’s Saturday afternoon at the Hair O’ The Dog store off Goldsborough Rd. (There are two
in Easton). Joe Petro and Paul Lukoskie are manning the store. Jimmy Buffett is playing on the satellite radio. Several
wines are sitting out at a bistro-like counter, open with glasses for tasting.
This is a truly hip place. Open and friendly. Great design. Cool art on the walls. Awesome displays that are fun to poke around. The best part is, a quick trip up and down the aisles reveals that these are wine labels you haven’t seen before; they’re decidedly different and interesting. The microbrew selection is impressive. And there are some really good deals to be found.
The wines set up for tasting look very inviting. (But it’s only 1:00? Oh, what the heck.) A dry
rosé. A Valpolicella. Taberna Falanghina, a vinho verde from Portugal. I get glass with nice taste of Riondo Prosecco
(11.25), rated 90 by the Wine Advocate, and stroll around.
There’s a couple in the store getting really serious about their wines, filling up a case. “You should try the Prosecco,” I suggested. “Is it white?” asks the woman. “Well, yes,” I reply. “Oh, no, thanks,” she says, “we only do reds.” Everyone else in the place is a little more open to adventure. You can hear one guy laughing across the store. “Pinot Evil? Is this any good? “Yeah, it’s a little fruitier, not like a California pinot, but it’s a real good value,” says Joe. It’s from Romania. $8, he tells me, and adds that some of the great pinot producers have moved into Eastern Europe, because land is actually affordable there. Personally, I think ‘value’ is an excellent wine word. For someone whose debit card throws an hissy fit at 12 bucks a bottle, that’s a wine for me. I buy a bottle. Not that there aren’t rare, fabulous, expensive wines at Hair O’ The Dog. There are. Round & Luscious? Juicy & Fruity? Big & Bold?
Within a few minutes, you know your way around the store. Wines are grouped by taste and body, rather
than country; it sparks exploration. If you want a medium-bodied white to go with salmon, for example, you start in the “Round
& Luscious” section, knowing that here you will find “full-bodied whites that are rich, deep and luxuriant,
such as Chardonnay and Viognier.” Want a pinot-style wine? Check “Juicy & Fruity” for wines that “like
puppies, are easy to love.” The idea is to make make wine unintimidating and more fun to drink, thereby promoting Hair O’ The Dog’s “quest for global beverage domination.” The writing is amusing and great, which makes the enjoyment of wine even better. Let’s face it, you can say a wine is a “medium-bodied red” or you can say “If Nat King Cole's voice was poured into a glass, and you sipped it on a starry night, this is what it would taste like.” And you’d know exactly what that wine tastes like, wouldn’t you? A lot of serious work went into all this fun. Joe Petro and co-owner Dave Lewis refer to themselves as “misplaced” corporate guys. They’d been in enough soul-draining meetings to know it was not what they envisioned for the rest of their lives. But they’d also absorbed what a successful business requires. A Niche in Time
Joe and Dave, together with their wives Vicki (Joe’s) and Shazz (Dave’s), saw room in the market. Between grocery stores and liquor stores, there was a world of opportunity — a growing market of people who wanted knowledge and help, as well as a good place to spend an hour.
“One reason we look so much better is that the benchmark is so low,” says Joe. “At the
supermarket, you’ll find the usual suspects. But there they are on the shelves with their corks drying out, and no one
can tell you what goes with pork chops.” And the liquor stores? “They’re dark, small, it’s not the
kind of place you take the kids. They want you in and out, and to buy a lottery ticket while you’re at it.”
“We’re family friendly, we’re clean, we’re casual. We’re here to help you out. That’s a big part of the store. We don’t say we’re experts, but we do this all the time, and one of us has tasted every wine that comes in here.” (That might not be as glamorous as it sounds, but it’s probably not that bad. Together with the wine manager, Philip Bernot, they taste about 30 wines a week.) Fun and different is part of breaking down the barriers to wine. Today, Joe estimates that Hair O’ The Dog carries more than 325 wines (maybe up to 400, he hazards). They stock over 200 different brands of beer. 125 rums. 125 vodkas. 50 tequilas, (Hey, here’s one with a scorpion in it!) 30 single-malt Scotch whiskys and 20 gins. And for those looking for savings, Top Dog card holders (there’s no charge to join) get a discount of 17% for cases (including mixed). And the Smell-Ya-Laters are a great value. One weekend, I picked up a RustRidge Sauvignon Blanc, normally 22.50, for $14.99, and a Verget du Sud Chardonnay, normally 17.99 for $10.52. Troll the website for more services and events, including tastings and classes. Hair O’ The Dog |
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