![]() Sunrise’s startling boom proved so successful, Mahesania began scouting a second venture-this time with Rozani earmarked as a partner. Industry personnel were partly responsible for this popular groundswell, as other natty wine hubs like Bufalina started to funnel their customers toward the unassuming corner store with Citgo gas pumps outside. Existing cus-tomers became swift converts, and Sunrise was finding new fans seemingly every day. I know my customers and Amir trusts me.”Īided by some social media savvy (Sunrise now has thousands of followers on Instagram and Facebook), Rozani’s gambit worked. “In most places, there’s a disconnect between the buyer and the seller on the floor,” Rozani says. If inundating Sunrise’s beer coolers with esoteric ales had seemed like a gamble, transforming aisles normally reserved for jugs of Carlo Rossi into the city’s most authoritative selection of natural and biodynamic wines came across as pure lunacy. I’m pretty sure he was thinking: Why is this guy in a gas station looking to purchase all this crazy-ass wine?” “His sales manager, Ray Small, came by to show me wine, and his face said it all. “Next thing you know, I’m reaching out to David Mayfield Selections ,” Rozani says. And in his increasing wine rapture, Rozani became more and more enamored with pétnats and other natty wines-a category defined by organic farming practices and minimal intervention in the cellar. Karen MacNeil’s The Wine Bible and Alice Feiring’s Naked Wine: Letting Grapes Do What Comes Naturally began to crowd his nightstand. Mass-market cabs and pinot noirs had never wrested his attention, but as he says, “the first time I tried gamay, it was a revelation.” The lighter, earthier, less-manipulated flavor profile of Beaujolais’ signature grape became a siren song. What’s next?, he thought, as he sifted through each successive farmhouse ale. Soon he was a sour and barrel-aged zealot, championing the efforts of Jolly Pumpkin and Jester King. ![]() With each new trophy beer, he tested the boundaries of his own palate. One refrigerated door soon ballooned into 24, and in 2009, Sunrise Mini Mart became North Austin’s premier destination for hard-to-find IPAs and special release ales.īut Rozani-a Mumbai native who moved to Austin to attend Texas State University’s business school-was a patron as much as a merchant. Bottles of Duval and Chimay crowded his fridge at home, so why not try it at the convenience store he managed on Anderson Lane? Inspired by the success of the Whip In on I-35, and with the support of owner Amir Mahesania, he began to scrupulously pluck placements of Bud and Boone’s Farm in favor of craft beer selections from across the globe. Simon Spelling ExtraĪlong with edibles and home accessories, the store has a whole wall of Japanese videos and magazines.For Sam Rozani, it all started with beer. And for customers closer to Soho, the second Broome Street shop offers an identical selection of goods in a slightly larger space. ![]() If you don't read Japanese, the friendly staff will happily identify the contents of all those enticing packaged goods, and even give you some idea of what to do with them. For a quick, inexpensive lunch, the kitchen's soba noodles, miso soup, and bento boxes are hard to beat. This is a fantastic place to come for fresh foods-tofu, Asian fruits such as nashi (Japanese pear) and kaki (persimmons), shabu-shabu beef, and exotic delicacies like flying fish roe or octopus tentacles. Inside the bright space, several spacious aisles offer groceries and snacks, health and beauty items, housewares such as rice cookers and ceramic tableware, and drinks-even the infamous Pokari Sweat, a Japanese version of Gatorade. The bulletin board inside is plastered with ads for services and housing leads for the Asian expat population. The East Village location of Sunrise Mart is half supermarket and half community center for the Japanese enclave that has popped up in the neighborhood over the past decade.
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