LeNell Smothers perched in front of her soon-to-close booze boutique. She plans a good-bye party for Feb. 20. Photo by Daniel Krieger
If anyone thinks that Brooklyn booze baroness LeNell Smothers has been run out of town, he’s got another thing coming.
“I’m not packing up, living in a shack in Alabama and crying in my moonshine,” explains the Fort Payne, Ala., native. “I still think that I’m going to find my ideal spot and it’s going to be a bigger and better situation. I just have to be patient.”
One of the best-loved liquor stores around, Smothers’ shop (named LeNell’s) is closing down this Friday, but its owner is adamant that the situation is only temporary. After the renowned wine and spirit boutique lost its lease last May, an eight-month struggle to remain at its Red Hook location ensued—complete with a legal dispute. In late January it became clear that Smothers and her stockpile of specialty bourbons and wines would have to move on. Smothers says she’s shutting up shop but sure as hell isn’t shipping out.
The store has been popular over the last five years with liquor enthusiasts who’ve enjoyed the range, decorations caption (single malts are showcased in a vintage baby carriage) and unpretentious atmosphere (the store’s toll free number is 877- NO-SNOBS) at the shop.
“I count most of my customers as special moments,” says Smothers. “You get to know people, their dogs, babies, when mama’s coming to town—all that one-onone that you don’t get in a big, huge franchised store.”
There’s one local, however, who Smothers has had a more prickly relationship with. A new landlord bought the building in 2005 and Smothers enquired about his plans for the space. After six months, he finally revealed to her that he wanted to open his own business there and that she would need to relocate. Smothers says they ended up in court after her lease expired in May. “I continued to stay in the location and forced him into throwing me out,” she says. “He told the judge that he was going to relet the space, that he could get $12,000 for it and even the judge laughed.”
Smothers continues to look for another store location, but the red tape involved with her liquor license has made the search a difficult one. “A lot of people don’t realize how difficult it is to deal with a liquor license. It’s not like I could just move anywhere I want to,” she says, explaining that state liquor laws require her to move within 1,000-feet of her current location (at 416 Van Brunt St., betw. Coffey & Van Dyke Sts.) and 200-feet from a school or church. She also has to make sure that a new location is a reasonable distance from other liquor stores, as the four closest ones get the chance to protest the license.
Though the last year has been a stressful one, the 37-year-old Smothers says she has received huge support from her devoted clientele. “There’s been an incredible amount of supportive emails and customers who’ve just stuck by me, bought me flowers or left me little notes,” she says. People from “all over the frickin’ country” shop there, Smothers explains, including San Francisco Chronicle cocktail columnist Gary Regan, the principal bartender at Brooklyn Heights’ Jack the Horse Tavern, Maxwell Britten and bartender Jim Meehan (formerly of Gramercy Tavern).
And although the current Van Brunt Street store will come to an end this week, Smothers is continuing her search for a new location (which she hopes to own) with a small army of brokers, attorneys and consultants. “Ideally what I’m looking for is a double storefront, which is making my search really hard. But I’m committed to this,” she says, explaining that at the next location she’ll open a new store and her own bar, “side-by-side or one-on-topof-the-other.”
She says that at times the myriad logistics of the new venture are overwhelming enough to make her contemplate abandoning the search, however her dream of a specialty liquor store always wins out. “Of course I have those moments. Everybody would. [But] I’m tough as nails,” she says. “I never opened this business thinking ‘this is just some cute thing to do to fuck around for a few years.’ So if it takes me a longer time to find the ideal situation, then so be it.”
After the Feb. 20 closing, Smothers will be pursuing opportunities in Europe for a few months with plans to travel to London to take up guest bartending roles at Notting Hill’s Montgomery Place bar and local hotspot Portobello Star. During her stint there, she’ll also be working on photography for her first cocktail book.
“While the store’s closed, I’m still just prepping myself for the future by training with the bar scene,” she says. After London she’ll head to Amsterdam to work with renowned bar and beverage consultant, Philip Duff, who has recently opened a bar there.
The store’s precarious situation has officially reached a conclusion though and Smothers says she’ll be hosting a couple of celebrations to mark the end of an era at the Van Brunt St. location. She’s planning an “open-door good-bye session” at the store Friday, Feb. 20 from midday until 9, and she’ll also be having a private celebration the night after with friends and family.
Smothers says she’ll be drinking absinthe to farewell her five years in Red Hook and mentioned that her customers simply need to stay tuned regarding the future of the store.
“I’m too stubborn for my own good some days,” she says. “And you ain’t seen the last of me yet…”
