North Beach was far ahead of its time in gourmet groceries 50 years ago; today, not so much. A store opening Friday hopes to change that.
Little Vine is the creation of Jay Esopenko, who was wine buyer at California Wine Merchant in the Marina for the last seven years. Ironically, Esopenko doesn't yet have a wine retail sales license, so he'll open up with just produce, cheese and upscale canned goods.
But that's more exciting than it sounds.
"We're doing fresh produce from Full Belly Farm," Esopenko says. "Daniel Patterson buys from them for Coi. A lot of top chefs in town buy from them, but they're not really in stores. It's all going to be seasonal produce, so we'll have what they have."
Jasmine Smith, former manager of Cowgirl Creamery's Ferry Plaza location, has curated an ambitious group of 50 cheeses.
Little Vine will sell meat products from Marin Sun Farms: steaks, chops, hamburger meat. "We'll also have eggs and chickens from Soul Food Farm," Esopenko says. He's also proud to be the first in town to sell Il Mondo Vecchio handmade salumi from Colorado.
The shop is tiny, no bigger than a takeaway coffee place, so it has to focus on quality. "We're going to fit as much stuff as we can in a small space," Esopenko says.
To cap off its differentiation from other North Beach stores, he'll sell single-cup pour-over Bicycle Coffee, but no espresso. "This is North Beach," he says. "Everybody does espresso."
Little Vine
1541 Grant Ave. (at Filbert St.)
272-7587
Tue-Fri 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
Sat-Sun 9 a.m.-7 p.m.
