A former laundromat behind Dairy Queen on Pecan Avenue will become wine bar The Bohemian. Kristen Wile/UP

It was his regulars who convinced Hop Shop owner Patrick Villafane that he should open a wine bar. The Plaza Midwood bottle shop opened with an emphasis on rare beers on tap and hundreds by the bottle nearly two-and-a-half years ago. The wine program started small, but as customers were ordering more, Villafane grew his offerings. They started bringing in wine reps the first Tuesday of each month to lead classes, and Villafane kept hearing the same thing.

“Every time people would come in for a wine tasting, they would talk about how the only place they can go to get wine is Harris Teeter in the neighborhood,” he says. He started thinking about what a wine-focused business might look like a year ago.

“As we started adding more wine in here, and as people kept asking about it, that’s when I really decided to start writing a plan on it and go from there and start looking at locations,” Villafane says. He looked in Plaza Midwood, NoDa, and South End, but couldn’t find the right space. When a friend told him about a dry cleaners’ space on Pecan Avenue coming available, he knew he’d found the spot.

The wine bar will be called The Bohemian. The interior will be casual but nice enough to fit the vibe of a wine bar, something like a fancier version of The Hop Shop, with an indoor/outdoor space leading into a small dining room.

“It’s going to be an unpretentious place,” he says. “It’s not going to be white tablecloth, white walls. It’s called The Bohemian, so it’s going to reflect the sense you get when you hear that word. A little bit free-spirited, a little bit unrefined, a little bit laid back, funky.”

Right now, the interior is being gutted and architectural designs are awaiting approval from the city. Once that happens, construction will begin on the just under 2,000-square-foot space. Villafane’s optimistic opening date is June.

The Bohemian will have a small kitchen, and serve charcuterie and cheese plates, paninis, and flatbreads. Villafane will hire a kitchen manager when construction ramps up, while he hopes to find someone with a level two WSET (Wine and Spirits Education Trust) or sommelier certification to oversee the beverage program.

The wine shop will launch with around 12 wines by the glass and 200 or so varietals by the bottle. They’ll have French, Italian, Spanish, California, Oregon, and Argentinian wines leading the selection, then watch how other regions perform and adjust their offerings accordingly. There will also be a selection of natural wines. The by-the-glass program will rotate, and include some unique glasses as well as standards.

Hours may change, but for now, Villafane is thinking the shop will be closed Monday and Tuesday, opening at 4 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday and noon or 2 p.m. Friday through Sunday. There likely won’t be a corkage fee, meaning you can crack a cheap bottle and make a date night out of it for under $20.

While Villafane has become well-known and respected by beer lovers, his childhood in Europe helped him gain an appreciation for wine, too. The son of a pilot, he was born in Germany and traveled throughout the continent as a kid.

“The thing I like about beer is the same thing I like about wine,” Villafane says. “It just gives you a sense of place. Wine has different stories to tell. You can go to drinkeries up in Mosel [a German wine region] and talk to guys who farm it and they’ve been doing it their entire lives and generations before them and before them. It just gives you a further appreciation for something that, at the end of the day, is poured out of a bottle.” —Kristen Wile