Chef and longtime restaurateur Trey Wilson didn’t intend to be opening two new concepts at once. He was in the process of building out Pizza Baby, a New York-style pizza restaurant in Wesley Heights, when the space next to Customshop, on Elizabeth Avenue, opened up. With the support of the restaurant group he formed this year, the Art & Commerce Food Group, Wilson embraced the opportunity to expand. “I just made a couple of phone calls,” he says. “And I say, ‘Well, I’d love to have that spot for a little wine shop next door.’”

The Girl Next Door will be a women-led wine bar built on the talent and expertise of several of Wilson’s longtime staff members, who have helped define the concept and will lead the development of the menu and wine program. “Customshop is very masculine,” Wilson says. “And I think it needed to be softened a little bit with a more feminine, nerdy kind of wine program.” Manager Jamie Phillips will spearhead that program. “Her wine knowledge is amazing,” Wilson says, and the pair share a taste for eclectic and interesting wines.

The space, at 1601 Elizabeth Ave., formerly housed My Maison Realty and is roughly the same size as Customshop, about 2,000 square feet. This week, Wilson filed the permits required to start demolition, so expect renovation to begin soon. Wilson expects the wine bar to open in January 2023.

Pizza Baby and The Girl Next Door may be the first of several more small, neighborhood-centered concepts for the Art & Commerce Food Group. “I have a lot of concepts I want to do,” Wilson says. “Everything I do, I want to do on a small scale — that recession-proof kind of food that people always eat.” He envisions a few small cafés and more Pizza Baby locations, but he’s in no rush. For now, he’s focused on the pizza and wine concepts. “We want to grow organically,” he says, “and not force it.”

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