Lou Dowling has racked up years behind the bars of Mary's, the Unicorn, and the Lansdowne, but she kept running into the same problem. She wanted to drink the kinds of wines they had at work – natural, small batch, local – but could never find any when she went to the bottle-o. And so the hospo veteran decided to be the change she wanted to see, approaching wine guru Mike Bennie with a plan to open a bottle shop that stocked the kinds of things she wanted to drink when she was off the clock. It was also Dowling who came up with the name for the venture – the P&V stands for piss and vinegar.
The finishing touches are being put on the shop on Enmore Road. The fridges are packed with interesting beers; the shelves are groaning under wines from the likes of Smallfry, and the sake chiller is up and running.
But the extra-strength fun comes in the form of the glass demijohns filled with pre-batch cocktails that they will decant into a bottle for you. Bring it to a dinner party so you can arrive with eight perfect Negronis ready to go, or grab a half size for a quiet couple of drinks on the couch.
P&V Wine and Liquor is aiming to make life a little easier. In addition to delicious drinks, they're also going to sell a few dinnertime staples. Maybe it's a whoel free-range chicken stuffed with butter lemon and thyme, ready to go in the oven. Or maybe it's a boil in a bag black lentil dahl that you can reheat for a proper dinner with no effort. They'll be selling a little bit of fresh produce too, but it's stuff designed for a specific dish. Maybe it's the ingredients for a ripper Greek salad, or a side of oxheart tomatos to go with your chook.
There will also be garnishes for sale, so that you've got the orange slices for your Negronis and the lemon for your tonic. That's the whole idea behind P&V, they're trying to make it easy to have a nice time, even if all you're doing is staying in and watching Netflix.