A new business will soon be ‘rising out of the ashes’ in the Alzavino Wine Tavern space
Alzavino Wine Tavern closed in early July, and in the months following, bar owners Danielle and Ken Harmon have been looking for someone to take over the lease on the space at 1001 W. Douglas.
But in the meantime, Danielle started developing a new idea — one that would help other small business owners launch their brands.
Now, the couple has taken the space off the market, and in October, Danielle said, she plans to open a new business there called Wildflower Mercantile.
It will be a retail shop inspired by the monthly Sip and Shop events that the Harmons used to put on at Alzavino. Local vendors would set up booths in the bar, and customers would shop while enjoying wine. Danielle estimates they put on around 15 successful Sip and Shop events during their time owning Alzavino.
Wildflower Mercantile will be a retail store that will have 10 permanent vendors — all local crafters and artisans — plus space for consignment vendors as well. Danielle Harmon, who since closing Alzavino has transferred her liquor license to a catering license, will occasionally set up and serve wine at Shop and Ship-style events in the space. Her new business name is Alzavino Wine.
“This will be that incremental thing to help local business owners who are not ready to go full bore and do brick and mortar,” Danielle said. “I have the risk of the brick and mortar. They’ll just pay for booth space.”
Danielle said she hopes to have Wildflower Mercantile open by late October or early November. She’s still working on clearing out the last of the furniture and equipment from Alzavino.
Though she hasn’t officially signed on her 10 permanent vendors yet, she said, she’s in talks with people who sell things like Wichita-branded merchandise, candles and clothing.
The kitchen space from Alzavino will be converted into a conference space, Danielle said. She’s partnering with the Kansas Small Business Association and wants to use the meeting room as a place where she can offer training for small businesses. She’d love to focus on female entrepreneurs as much as possible, she said.
The Harmons have the lease on the Alzavino space through October 2025. Danielle’s plan, she said, is to see how her new concept works out over the coming year. If it’s a hit, she plans to look for a larger space — around 6,000 square feet — that would have room for 15 to 20 permanent vendors. She’d like to be in a new space by the 2025 holiday season.
“I’d like to experiment and see how it’s going to work before I go full bore,” she said.
Danielle also plans to use her new catering license to put on small, private wine parties or tastings. Harmon would bring and pour the wine and educate party goers about what they were drinking.
She said she chose the name Wildflower Mercantile as a symbol of what she went through opening — and then closing — Alzavino, which was Wichita’s first self-service wine bar.
“When you have to close a business, you kind of get a little down on yourself and ask, ‘What could I have done different? Why didn’t this take off like we expected? There’s a little bit of heartbreak there,” she said.
She compares opening a new business in the space to a resilient and adaptive wildflower rising from the ashes.
“A wildflower can’t be stopped,” she said. “It can’t be killed.”
This story was originally published September 18, 2024 at 1:53 PM.
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