I don't make a habit of drinking a flight of wine on a weekday afternoon. But when the universe throws you an April snowstorm, swarming eclipse crowds and an earthquake all at once, what else can you do?
Thankfully, Winooski's Standing Stone Wines opens at noon. I arrived last Friday with a friend — who was also having a deeply Mercury-in-retrograde kind of day — promptly at 12:15.
Lil Sickles opened Standing Stone on the east — and historically quieter — side of the rotary in November. At the time, she focused on selling bottles of wine alongside products made by BIPOC and LGBTQ artists and craftspeople, donating a percentage of each month's sales to different Indigenous causes. She planned to open a small tasting bar this year, mostly to let customers try wines before committing to a whole bottle.
All that has changed. "I was planning on being a wine store with a little wine bar, and now I'm a wine bar with a little wine store," Sickles said.
Financially, she explained, the shift made sense. She'd have to sell a lot of $10 to $20 bottles of wine — in which the shop specializes — to make ends meet. With decades of experience running bars and restaurant wine programs in New York City, Boston and Burlington, she knows the bar business best.
In January, she went all in. In addition to wine, beer and nonalcoholic options, Standing Stone now has a full liquor license and offers batched cocktails such as Negronis, martinis and Manhattans. On weekends, mimosas and Bloody Marys join the mix, along with pastries from Burlington bakery Getty Goods & Services.
The rest of the food menu — which Sickles calls "Girl Dinner," referencing the recent meme — consists of chips, nuts, hummus and a cheese plate. This summer, when the Winooski Farmers Market is in full swing nearby, she hopes to add bagels with whitefish salad or smoked salmon.
"I'm trying to make a place that's a wine bar mixed with a coffee shop mixed with a lounge mixed with a dive bar," Sickles said.
The homey décor nails that place-for-all-occasions vibe: plush furniture, a healthy dose of animal prints, one rather large lava lamp and vintage McDonald's collectible water glasses. Standing Stone already hosts wine classes, private parties, trivia, pop-up dinners and music — soon to include live-band karaoke, Sickles said. In our case, the occasion was the feeling of impending doom.
We'd each chosen four different wines, ranging from a sustainable, native yeast-fermented, "super fun" German silvaner to a biodynamic chilled Italian red blend that the menu said "tastes expensive." (Flights are $15 for four pours, and wines are also available by the glass or bottle, starting at $8 and $28, respectively.)
I opted for two sparkling wines: an organic lambrusco — because I can never resist a glass of the dry, red bubbles — and a frizzante rosé from Austria, because of its description.
"We call this wine Dolly Parton," the menu said. "It looks a little cheap on the outside, but it's full of taste and class!" Instantly, I was sold.
Beyond the flight offerings, the wine list also offers pours of more expensive bottles (served using a Coravin, which keeps the cork in place to preserve the wine's freshness). But Standing Stone's biggest selling point is its affordability. On Wednesdays, customers can get a glass for as little as $5.
Apocalypse or not, that sounds like a great occasion for a drink.