Audrey Claire Cook is now Cork, a wine shop selling 100-plus bottles
It's joining Philadelphia restaurants in the bottle-shop game, including the soon-to-return Tinto.
With cooking classes idled, Audrey Taichman has converted Audrey Claire Cook, her demonstration kitchen at 20th Street and Rittenhouse Square, into a wine shop called Audrey Claire Cork, selling 100-plus bottles along with merchandise.
This is the short-term plan, said Taichman, who has had the 16-seat chef’s counter covered up to make way for the bottles. The shop also has cookbooks for sale, as well as wine accessories, utensils, linens, and the like. Cook’s last class was in March.
Hours are 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily.
As restaurants diversify to drum up business, they’re acquiring licenses to sell wine — mostly labels from the state’s special-order list that are not available in the state’s Fine Wine and Good Spirits stores.
Among the Philadelphia restaurants selling wine are Vernick Wine (next to Vernick) in Rittenhouse, Le Caveau and Fitz & Starts in Queen Village, Jet Wine Bar and Wine Dive in Graduate Hospital, the two Tria locations in Center City, and Bistro Romano in Society Hill.
Also, Tinto — Jose Garces’ Basque wine bar in Rittenhouse — soon will reopen for the first time since the pandemic and will include a bottle shop featuring Spanish wines.