by Kristen Wile

Three years ago, Petit Philippe owner Mark Meissner purchased a mid-century building that housed a laundromat on Park Road. Taken by the architecture — and frustrated by the fact that so few examples of it remain in Charlotte — Meissner began the process of slowly transforming the building into what will reopen as Petit Philippe this weekend. The building was stripped down to its bones before being upfitted with plenty of custom woodwork, furniture that exemplifies its era, and outfitted with enough security, temperature, and humidity control to house what is likely the city’s most vast collection of collectible wines.

“We wanted to respect the fact that this is kind of a landmark,” Meissner says. “Every week we’ll have customers that say, ‘Thank you,’ not just for not tearing the building down, but for preserving a very cool space. When I look at the space from the street, it’s a great building. The Googie period — which is like In-and-Out burger, all these old buildings — was celebrated and still is on the West Coast, but there’s so few examples in Charlotte, so we felt really compelled to preserve the building.”

Petit Philippe kicks off its first weekend in the new space with a black tie event on Friday, Oct. 20 featuring formal fare and Champagne stations before opening its doors to the public on Saturday, Oct. 21 at 11 a.m. With its relocation, the shop has grown significantly in space to 2,500 square feet. The glass-fronted entry space features wine racks and lounge seating, with a tasting bar and retail counter behind it. In this area, guests can stop in to shop as well as sip a glass or enjoy a tasting. The wine shop will expand the days it offers its flights, centered around a region, style, or winemaker, to Wednesday-Sunday. The flights will change weekly, largely due to the fact that many of the bottles featured are allocated, and are meant to help educate customers passionate about wine.

“We’re fine wine merchants; we’re not a wine bar,” Meissner says. “You come here to learn about wine, to buy wine, to taste wines, experience wine. Everything from elevated stemware, which we think our clients will really appreciate, to the assortment and the team that’s presenting and explaining what’s in the glass — it’s going to be a game changer for the Southeast.”

The larger space will allow for more wines for sale, but the core will remain focused on Old World wines with Old-World styles of West Coast wines as well.

“The vast majority of what we carry is highly allocated small producers who focus less on manipulating their wine, but focus on great wines that are produced and the vineyards — folks that are stewards of the vineyards and not folks mixing chemicals in the back room with white lab coats,” Meissner says. “Wines that you won’t find everywhere, wines that should be highly expressive of where they are from.”

The building also features a lower level, which will be where Petit Philippe hosts wine dinners, special events, and other programming. The larger space also allowed La Cave — Petit Philippe’s wine storage and concierge service – to move into the building’s below-ground space; previously, it was housed a few doors down from the Selwyn Avenue store. La Cave inventories and cellars wines from clients’ personal collections, and provides guidance on how and when to consume that wine. La Cave customers also get first access to coveted tastings and events.

The shop will also have a small patio on the backside of the building, protected from the traffic on Park Road. Petit Philippe — located right next to Park Road Shopping Center — will open immediately with full hours, from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, and 1 to 7 p.m. on Sunday.

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