More from our conversation with Jon Parker

In this month’s Five Questions interview, Byron Kerman spoke with Jon Parker about the reopening of his Parker’s Table wine and gourmet foods shop in Richmond Heights. In the first part of the interview, available on page 54 of our May issue, Parker told us about what happened with his old location, his ever-growing record collection and all about his ideal customer. Now, in the second half of the interview, find out what it takes to compete in today’s market, the best way to listen to that legendary record collection and Parker’s philosophy on a life without wine. I hear you’ve grown a bit. We have more than doubled the size of our old space. We plan to increase our food and beer selection and turn it into more of a specialty foods market. We’re a work in progress; for our most recent construction, we took a wall out and built a wooden arch. We’ve got an arch better than the one downtown! (Laughs) How do you decide which wines to carry? It’s always about the balance of tastes and prices. I always feel like the shop is a “circular balance beam.” When it’s right, it feels right; when certain sections feel too heavy or light, for me, it feels off. I’m always trying to shore up the weaknesses. Can I sit under that big skylight while I listen to your record collection? The skylight and the Japanese lanterns and parasols. We’re playing with light and color. The whole place is like a stage set. [My employee] Jesse and I built a gift-wrapping table that doubles as a wine-tasting bar. And everything here is on wheels, everything rolls. It’s an entirely flexible space. We even have a 22-by-11-and-a-half-foot wall on wheels. It’s really heavy. Tell us about your super secret location. This place is not a place you see if you look directly at it. You catch it out of the corner of your eye – it’s like Diagon Alley, or Platform 9 and Three-Quarters. (Laughs) But once people find it, they can’t stop seeing it. It’s seeing it the first time that’s a challenge. [Parker’s Table is located at Oakland and Yale Avenues, just behind Tip-Top Cleaners.] It’s a beautiful old building. It was built in 1928 as the Richmond Heights post office and was used as that until 1961 when it was bought by Frank Viviano and run as a wine shop until the mid 90s. Then it was a florist and a caterer. In 1928, this was on the main drag in Richmond Heights, but Highway 40 changed everything and dried up some of the traffic. We still have trolley tracks in the pavement out front. The modern wine shop has to contend with so much competition. How do you pitch what you can offer? The business has changed. My thing has always been about relating with people and making sure we have available what our customers like. You can buy clothes online, but do they always fit? I don’t want to buy shoes online – I’d rather try them on first. So we have tastings here. And our overhead is half of what it was in Clayton, so our prices can be competitive. You’ve retained customers from the old location? Yes, it’s been great to see the old faces coming back and to connect with new people. We have better access now for St. Louis city customers, like Central West End people, and our county customers are coming back. Tell me about the pair of adorable, antique three-wheeled delivery vehicles you acquired. One is, ironically, an old postal truck from 1957. I got it in ’03 and started going to farmers markets with it, where we sold olive oil, pasta, vinegar and bread. I ended up getting another one, and the big one can tow the little one, so I would leave one at the market. The big one we turned into a mobile smoker truck, and we were selling barbeque at Joe’s Café and neighborhood events in the Skinker/Debaliviere area. They need a little fine tuning now. The little one, the postal truck, will be a wine delivery truck. We’ll deliver within a two-mile radius or so. Is a life with wine a richer life? I had an Uncle Homer, and he and my Grandfather Hilary went to Rome, and at a Roman restaurant, Uncle Homer was offered wine, and he said, “I don’t drink wine.” The waiter said, “it was good enough for my father but not for you?” (Laughs)