Booth Hardy and his dog, Henry, at Barrel Thief. (Mike Platania photos)
There’s a new ring leader at a longtime West End wine shop.
Booth Hardy is now the sole owner of Barrel Thief Wine & Provisions after purchasing the ownership stakes of co-founders Ross Mattis, Ned Wheeler and Dave Michelow.
The bottle shop at 5805 Patterson Ave. has been offering all sorts of wines from various countries, as well as some beer and market provisions, since 2009.
Hardy got his start in the wine business working at winemakers in Santa Cruz and Sonoma, California. When Barrel Thief opened in 2007 with a location in Short Pump, Hardy was one of the shop’s first employees.
He went on to manage the Patterson shop when it opened a few years later, and by 2011 he’d bought in as a business partner. The Short Pump Barrel Thief closed in 2012.
Last year, as Barrel Thief’s lease was coming up, Hardy said he and the other partners began discussing the future. Mattis is a veteran of the wine industry while Wheeler works at local consulting firm Frontier. Michelow co-owns The Veil Brewing Co.
“We were trying to figure out what everybody wanted to do – if we wanted to move forward here, move somewhere else or just close down,” Hardy said. “I thought about it for a while and decided that I feel like I put a lot into this place and didn’t want to see it go away. I’ve built a career around it.”
The four worked out a deal for Hardy to buy their shares for an undisclosed amount, and as the new sole owner of Barrel Thief, Hardy signed a new lease for the shop last November. Barrel Thief’s building is owned by a trust tied to the Robins family, the same group that’s planning a redevelopment of the Westhampton Pastry Shop building catty-corner to the wine shop.
The wine shop is celebrating 15 years on Patterson Avenue this year.
Until the pandemic hit in 2020, Barrel Thief had also operated a cafe in the shop where it often hosted jazz nights on the weekend. Hardy said that he doesn’t plan to bring back the cafe but that bringing live music back is on his to-do list.
“I know a lot of people miss it so I’m looking to incorporate some music into some wine-tasting events,” Hardy said. “We had so much fun with the cafe but it was a lot to try to manage two aspects of the business.”
Hardy said he’s looking to expand Barrel Thief’s cocktail-related inventory as well and recently added shakers, jiggers, mixing glasses and more. The shop also offers wine subscriptions and ships wine to customers in Virginia, D.C. and Florida.
In 2021 Barrel Thief added its own wine brand, Moonlighter, a line of business that took off during the pandemic when winemakers’ sales to restaurants were down considerably. Barrel Thief connected with some winemakers in Oregon and California to produce its own brand of wines and has kept it going.
In recent years, low-intervention wines, which are made with minimal or no additives or chemicals, have surged in popularity, Hardy said.
Since Barrel Thief opened 15 years ago, he said the overall wine scene in Richmond has really taken off.
“The wine knowledge of restaurants and bars has just gone up so much since we started. There were only a few people really doing anything with small production wines in town and since then, there’s a lot of different businesses doing awesome stuff,” Hardy said.
“It’s grown a ton. There are people that are hungry for wine knowledge and they want to have good stuff.”
Booth Hardy and his dog, Henry, at Barrel Thief. (Mike Platania photos)
There’s a new ring leader at a longtime West End wine shop.
Booth Hardy is now the sole owner of Barrel Thief Wine & Provisions after purchasing the ownership stakes of co-founders Ross Mattis, Ned Wheeler and Dave Michelow.
The bottle shop at 5805 Patterson Ave. has been offering all sorts of wines from various countries, as well as some beer and market provisions, since 2009.
Hardy got his start in the wine business working at winemakers in Santa Cruz and Sonoma, California. When Barrel Thief opened in 2007 with a location in Short Pump, Hardy was one of the shop’s first employees.
He went on to manage the Patterson shop when it opened a few years later, and by 2011 he’d bought in as a business partner. The Short Pump Barrel Thief closed in 2012.
Last year, as Barrel Thief’s lease was coming up, Hardy said he and the other partners began discussing the future. Mattis is a veteran of the wine industry while Wheeler works at local consulting firm Frontier. Michelow co-owns The Veil Brewing Co.
“We were trying to figure out what everybody wanted to do – if we wanted to move forward here, move somewhere else or just close down,” Hardy said. “I thought about it for a while and decided that I feel like I put a lot into this place and didn’t want to see it go away. I’ve built a career around it.”
The four worked out a deal for Hardy to buy their shares for an undisclosed amount, and as the new sole owner of Barrel Thief, Hardy signed a new lease for the shop last November. Barrel Thief’s building is owned by a trust tied to the Robins family, the same group that’s planning a redevelopment of the Westhampton Pastry Shop building catty-corner to the wine shop.
The wine shop is celebrating 15 years on Patterson Avenue this year.
Until the pandemic hit in 2020, Barrel Thief had also operated a cafe in the shop where it often hosted jazz nights on the weekend. Hardy said that he doesn’t plan to bring back the cafe but that bringing live music back is on his to-do list.
“I know a lot of people miss it so I’m looking to incorporate some music into some wine-tasting events,” Hardy said. “We had so much fun with the cafe but it was a lot to try to manage two aspects of the business.”
Hardy said he’s looking to expand Barrel Thief’s cocktail-related inventory as well and recently added shakers, jiggers, mixing glasses and more. The shop also offers wine subscriptions and ships wine to customers in Virginia, D.C. and Florida.
In 2021 Barrel Thief added its own wine brand, Moonlighter, a line of business that took off during the pandemic when winemakers’ sales to restaurants were down considerably. Barrel Thief connected with some winemakers in Oregon and California to produce its own brand of wines and has kept it going.
In recent years, low-intervention wines, which are made with minimal or no additives or chemicals, have surged in popularity, Hardy said.
Since Barrel Thief opened 15 years ago, he said the overall wine scene in Richmond has really taken off.
“The wine knowledge of restaurants and bars has just gone up so much since we started. There were only a few people really doing anything with small production wines in town and since then, there’s a lot of different businesses doing awesome stuff,” Hardy said.
“It’s grown a ton. There are people that are hungry for wine knowledge and they want to have good stuff.”
More wine for my friends!