Father-and-son owners Drew and Robbie Schenck are pairing wine, champagne cocktails and craft beer with one of the best backyards in Cary.
By Dathan Kazsuk
If you’ve spent any time around Downtown Cary Park lately, you know the routine.
Grab something to drink. Wander around. Find a shady spot. Watch the dogs. Find dinner. Maybe decide you’re not ready to go home yet.
Drew and Robbie Schenck just happen to have a pretty good seat for all of it.
“We have a $70 million backyard,” Drew says.
That backyard is Downtown Cary Park, sitting just beyond Vino & Tap, the father-and-son duo’s wine and craft beer bar inside the historic Pasmore House at 307 S. Academy Street. The house previously held Cotton House Craft Brewers and sits within Cary’s historic district, with the park essentially spilling out behind it.
And honestly, the location might explain Vino & Tap better than any wine list could.
This isn’t really designed as the kind of wine bar where you whisper about tannins for two hours while somebody nearby swirls a glass like they’re trying to summon a spirit.
You can certainly get serious about wine here. But Vino & Tap is also built for the person who wants a glass of bubbly, a well-picked beer, or something cold and fruity before taking another lap through the park.
Drew says he and Robbie had talked about opening something together—even kicking around ideas such as a coffee shop—before the former Cotton House space became available.
“My son and I wanted to do something together,” Drew says. When they saw the location, the idea began to click. “Champagne on the park is just a beautiful thing.”
Vino & Tap opened in April, with wine, a compact selection of craft beers, and champagne cocktails at the center of the concept. Because of its connection to Downtown Cary’s social district, the cocktail program relies on wine-based ingredients rather than a traditional full-liquor setup, allowing drinks to be served throughout the district.
That limitation has actually made the drinks more interesting.
There’s a Basil Smash, a Caribbean-inspired cocktail with orange, pineapple and a decidedly beachy personality, and a French 74—their wine-based spin on the familiar French 75.
And then there’s the frosé.
“Dangerously delicious,” Robbie says, noting that groups have already made a habit of showing up for the bar’s Friday frosé special.
I tried several of the cocktails while talking with the Schencks, and that lighter style makes sense here. These aren’t drinks that make you feel like you should immediately find a couch and cancel the rest of the afternoon. They fit a place where the next stop might simply be 50 feet away in the park.
Robbie brings plenty of beer experience to the equation, too. He previously handled the beer program at RallyPoint, one of several Triangle hospitality ventures connected to his father over the years. Drew’s restaurant career in Cary stretches back to 1992 and has included Remington Grill, RallyPoint Sports Grill and Dram & Draught.
Vino & Tap, however, marks something different.
“This is the first time Robbie owns one of the places that we’ve worked on together,” Drew says. “He’s the operating partner, doing a good job.”
Working with family can, of course, be wonderful.
It can also make Thanksgiving spectacularly awkward.
The Schencks knew that going in and established boundaries about who handles what. Robbie also knows when experience wins an argument.
“I’ve learned a lot of hospitality and service industry from him,” Robbie says of his father. “Even though we may not see eye to eye, he might be able to see further than me.”
That experience may be especially important right now.
Wine shops, breweries and bars have all been navigating changing drinking habits, something Drew readily acknowledges. His response is one of the more interesting things he told me during our conversation.
“We’re not really selling alcohol, we’re selling an experience,” he says. “When you concentrate on selling the experience, people are still coming.”
That might ultimately be Vino & Tap’s smartest bet.
There are wine tastings, private gathering spaces and the new Collector’s Club, a quarterly membership with bottle drops, discounts and tasting benefits. The official site also promotes private parties and community events as part of the mix.
But the biggest amenity requires no membership.
Order something cold, walk out back and look around.
Seventy million dollars bought Cary one heck of a park.
Drew and Robbie just figured out where to put the wine bar.
