Wine bars becoming popular in the Tri-Cities

TRI-CITIES, Tenn. (WJHL) – More wine businesses are coming to the Tri-Cities. After Kingsport saw its first wine bar open last year, Johnson City will have the next one soon.

The Feisty Pigeon wine bar will be located at 109 Cherry Street Suite 20 in Johnson City.

Owners Adrien and Ddendyl Rogers said the wine bar will be a combination of a wine and artistic experience.

“We actually took our honeymoon to Johnson City kind of unexpectedly and we fell in love with the area, fell in love with East Tennessee,” Ddendyl Rogers said. “And we noticed that there was no wine bar on one of the nights that we were coming downtown to search for it. And we were already in the works of trying to open up something on our own. And we thought ‘this is perfect. We love it here, and they need a wine bar. So let’s come on.'”

The Rogers said they are ready to offer a new world wine experience.

“Think grapes that you know from places that you don’t,” Adrien Rogers said. “So that will be kind of the ethos behind our wine program, is offering some more of those newer wine regions, more eclectic offerings and things like that. And that will be paired with our art retail side of things, offering some of the local artwork and artwork that my wife makes. And then we’ll also have live music here as well.”

The Feisty Pigeon will also have charcuterie with a variety of cheeses and meats.

“We’re going to do mainly small plates that you can share with your friends and family and then he’ll [Adrien] tell you what wine to drink with them,” Ddendyl Rogers said.

Paul and Crystal Davidson, owners of Knob Creek Nurcery & Vineyard said they love the partnerships they can have with other wine businesses.

“We’re really excited about having the wine bars here,” Crystal Davidson said. “Maybe an outlet for some of our wines of course. And just the people and the fellowship that come with it.”

The Davidsons have been home winemakers for years. They opened the winery portion of their business last year in November.

“Just to be able to touch every aspect of it and to learn and to share,” Paul Davidson said. “It’s interesting when somebody comes and tries a wine and we say, ‘well that wine came from these rows.’ And a lot of people think that’s really, really something.”

Paul Davidson said partly why they got into the wine business is the camaraderie between likewise establishments.

“Half of these grape vines came from other wineries, other vineyards. They gave them to us. And it’s like even the bar that we use for tasting, that was given to us by a brewery,” Paul Davidson said.

“Builds community, it’s a craft, so everybody’s really interested in the craft. And I want to share that with others,” Crystal Davidson added.

Knob Creek wines will be served at Inspire Wine Bar in Kingsport for a Meet the Winemaker’s event highlighting Tennessee wineries on Sept. 27 .

“We want to be able to bring them in, buy their wine, feature it on a flight,” Talina Zsido, co-owner of Inspire Wine Bar said. “And we hope to keep that momentum going, especially through the winter, because a lot of vineyards and wineries are event spaces like weddings and things like that during the summer. So in the winter, it’s kind of a slower time for them. So I’m hoping to be able to bring some more in and learn a little bit more about what we have locally, especially in Tennessee.”

Zsido said she feels like wine is the next step here in the region.

“We’ve had all these breweries, you know, and tap houses and now it’s like, okay well let’s bring some wine into the picture.”

She also credits wine being a less caloric option to why it might be growing in popularity in the region.

Zsido said what makes their wine bar unique is the environment.

“It’s not very expensive. It’s no different than going to a brewery and buying a glass of beer. The price points [are] probably about the same. We have some ones that are more expensive, but we just wanted a place where people could come and basically almost like hang out but have a conversation, enjoy some time catching up.”

“As you’ll see we don’t have any televisions and we really of course, we want to be busy, we want to stay open, but we never want it to be so busy that people feel rushed to leave like we really like kind of having a lounge type feel where people can hang out,” Zsido said.

Adrien and Ddendyl Rogers are hoping The Feisty Pigeon will open sometime in the latter half of October.

“We want to be here and we put our heart and soul into this place, a little bit of blood, a lot of sweat,” Ddendyl Rogers said. “My husband and I built that bar by hand, and mostly him. I’m doing the finishing touches, but even the wood that we sourced is from our family and friends.
And so we’ve really put our [hearts] and souls in this place. And we hope that people will enjoy the venue and the concept as much as we do in our heads and hearts.”

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