When Leona and Luis Rodriguez open a business, they do so with two ideas in mind: to share their love of food and drink while simultaneously creating new jobs for their community. And the couple’s latest venture, The Wine Station — located in Seattle’s diverse southend neighborhood of Beacon Hill — achieves both while also aiming to educate locals on the myriad characteristics and history of the drink.
“A lot of wine bars can make people feel stupid,” says Luis. “The Wine Station is the opposite of that. We welcome people of color and low-income folks and we want to make you feel comfortable.”
Over the years, the Rodriguezes have worked to build the food and drink scene in Beacon Hill. The high-school-sweethearts-turned-married-couple first began their culinary journey helping Luis’ brother open the beloved local joint, Baja Bistro. Wanting to venture out on their own, the couple set their sights in 2010 on opening a café, the popular community hub known as The Station. As business expanded, The Station moved operations across the street to bigger and brighter digs in February. Upon doing so, Leona and Luis were faced with the question: what to do with their original space? Turn it into a comfortable, approachable wine bar.
“We want to wake you up with coffee and put you to bed with wine,” Luis says. The couple, known as much for excellent espresso as they are for marching in political protests, now aims to upend the convention that wine bars are stuffy and pretentious, instead offering theirs to the community just as they offered The Station — ready and willing to invite all inside.
To stock the new watering hole, Leona and Luis rigorously researched wineries in Washington, California and beyond that were either owned or operated by people of color — wineries like Washington’s Kiona Vineyards. Representation and diversity are perhaps the most important pillars in the business philosophy of the duo that have watched their home neighborhood change immeasurably over the last five years. “There is nothing we can do to stop gentrification,” says Luis, a Seattleite originally from Mexico. “But the advice I can give to newcomers is to support the local businesses that were here before you.”
The Wine Station’s menu features 16 different bottles — 11 of which are available for glass pours — ranging from red to white and bubbly. The most expensive bottle is about $50 while the cheapest is less than $20. Luis says the idea is to be accessible, especially to people who might otherwise balk at the idea of going to wine bar — either out of a sense of unwelcome, because they’re traditionally pricey or because they just don’t have any prior relationship.
For the Rodriguezes, wine has become an integral part in their own day-to-day, which includes often cooking with it. As such, they wanted to share what they loved about it with their neighbors, including the summer arts festival, The Station Block Party. Rumor has it they may look to open another spot in the future — perhaps a breakfast joint — for now, The Wine Station is their focus.
“People always ask me, ‘Why wine? Why not a Mexican restaurant or something?'” Luis says. “And I always tell them, ‘Like coffee, black and brown people cultivated wine. And it’s often from countries with a majority of black and brown people living there — not just European countries.’ It’s time everyone celebrated that, and you can do that at The Wine Station.”
