NORFOLK — With a desire to bring residents together and build a community around his favorite libation, business owner Matthew Emborski will be opening a wine boutique in the Freemason District.
Origin Wine Social is expected to open its doors at 251 West Bute St. in downtown Norfolk in mid-August and will feature tasting events as well as classes on all things wine.
“It was always something I had in the back of my mind; that I wanted to make this a professional thing where I would love to have somewhere to teach about wine,” Emborski said.
As a certified sommelier — a wine steward — the Virginia Beach resident decided to open a business where experienced and novice wine lovers in the community could taste, buy, and learn about wine.
Along with selling and sampling a variety of wines, Emborski said he plans to build a seating area into the shop so he can host lessons for patrons who want to learn the foundation of wine tasting and assessment.
“People can look forward and say ‘what do I want to attend?’ and so on,” he said. “It would be a nice little social night. I’ll have the wine reps in there doing little tasting sessions a couple nights a week.”
Emborski’s interest in wine, he recalled, began in his mid-20s when he worked in restaurants at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront.
To become more knowledgeable about the wines he was offering to customers, Emborski said he began studying the variety of wines on the list, kick-starting his journey which eventually led to northern Virginia.
Emborski moved to Old Town Alexandria to work as a general manager in a French restaurant with the condition that he would be allowed to manage the wine list as well.
“That was a really, really good jump-right-in experience for me because it gave me France as a foundation, which is an incredible foundation to have for wine,” Emborski said. “Beyond that, I spent almost six years there running the wine list, and I changed it up on the regular basis, [putting] new products in front of the customers all the time.”
Emborski said he began hosting wine dinners, allowing him to host lectures.
After returning to the Hampton Roads area, the budding business owner said that he wanted to step away from owning a restaurant and streamline his concept into focusing on wine tasting and education instead.
“I wanted to make sure that when I did [open] a business it was something that I wouldn’t have to juggle 20 different things and just keep it straight about the wine,” Emborski said.
According to Emborski, he wanted to open up his wine shop in a location that would allow him to connect with the community.
The choice to set up shop in Norfolk’s historic Freemason neighborhood was due to its close proximity to residents who could regularly frequent the shop, which Emborski said reminded him of when he worked in northern Virginia.
“When I met the historic committee of the neighborhood they asked me ‘what about parking for your guests?” Embroski said. “There is a city garage across the street and there’s on-street parking, so their parking is not an issue. But, my first response to them was ‘I’m here to really serve the neighborhood first, and I really value those kinds of relationships.'”
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