Commercial Wine Cellar Project: Restaurant Wine Cellar in Richmond, Virginia at Buckhead

Tim Wright, owner and contractor at Harvest Wine Cellars and Saunas, walks us through this commercial wine cellar project at the longstanding Buckhead, a local, high-end chophouse in Richmond, Virginia.

You can view more details and pictures about this commercial restaurant wine cellar project here. To see the video for this restaurant wine cellar in Richmond go here.

Below is a direct transcription from Tim Wright.

Buckhead Chophouse: Growing Wine Collection Meant a Growing Need for a Restaurant Wine Cellar

Buckhead is a high-end chophouse in Richmond, Virginia.

I think they opened in 1994. So, they’ve been around for a long time.

Lately, and maybe over the past five years, their wine list has grown tremendously.

So, they had a big need. And I have known the owner for quite some time and have actually been working on this project with him for quite some time.

A Backroom with Modest Shelving Turned Commercial Wine Cellar

The original space was a room behind the bar area that was approximately feet deep.

So, that’s actually where it is today.

There was an existing shelving area for liquor, and then it started to be a catch-all for everything. So, the room almost became somewhat obsolete. And since he’d always wanted a wine cellar, he wanted to know if we could do one in there.

Adding a Peek-Through Window to the Space to Display the Wine Cellar and Wines to Restaurant Patrons

So that window right there wasn’t there before. There, it’s just filmed over so that during construction it didn’t break.

You know, it was put in after or during the construction of the wine cellar so that, you know, you’re sitting at the bar, you’d be able to look in and see part of the wine cellar which is kind of cool.

Process of Building a Restaurant Wine Cellar for Buckhead

They [the owners of Buckhead] kind of did this one step at a time.

So, once we moved forward, and he liked the design, all the shelves were removed, all the drywall, and the door was capped.

We knew from the beginning that eventually he’d get a wine cellar door and that you know, during the process he had to store his wine elsewhere.

He’s got racks all over the restaurant. So, he’s got a ton of wine in there and I think he had some in storage just all over the, the restaurant in the office and all of that.

Restaurant Wine Cellar Racking and Milled-In Lighting for Buckhead’s Storage Room Conversion

Kessick is the manufacturer of this racking.

And they don’t provide kit ranking. So, it doesn’t come in 100 little pieces.

And that’s what I like. It is almost like solid box construction

They come in like kitchen cabinets, if you will, so they’re easier to install in kitchen cabinets because you’re not hanging–you know–the upper cabinets.

You’re actually checking from the bottom up.

So, for example, on the back wall where you have the arrow, right there is a parallel design. So, it has vertical lighting components that are milled in at the manufacturer, on the vertical, in panels of both sides. So that that unit would come in as one unit. So that would be the first thing in this case to install.

Do you see all the square panels (boxes is what I call them)?

The display rows come individually, and they have the lighting rabbited or rounded into the top part of the valance.

When you install the base cabinets all the way around, let’s just say we’ve already installed parallel on the left and then we start with the base cabinets all along.

And then on top of that place the display rows.

Once the display row is put in there, daisy chain the lighting. So, they just snap together so that the lighting won’t be able to illuminate. And they run directly to a switch.

More About Kessick’s Wine Cellar Racking with Milled-In Lighting

So, they’re milled in, add to the manufacture. A lot of manufacturers don’t account for that. For others, the lighting is always an afterthought.

But with Kessick, it comes with the lighting included.

And then the wires get daisy chain linked together so that it completes the circuit all the way around the seller.

Is Vertical Wine Cellar Lighting More Modern and Uncommon than Traditional, Horizontal Lighting?

It really all depends on the racking.

Typically, if you have horizontal racking or whether it’s parallel or the acrylic elevation or other manufacturers, it depends on what their series of racking are (like horizontal label forward).

Typically, in the past, horizontal lighting was always favored.

So, it is a little bit more contemporary now to provide vertical lighting because it helps elevate the eyes you want to look up instead of, keeping them all in the middle of the horizontal label forward.

Typically, a display row is the personal preference [among our clients].

But with a display row, you can really show off the labels in your favorite bottles

with that light strip across the top.

Sealing and Cooling the Commercial Wine Cellar for Proper Insulation

the window actually I think that was done before the flooring and that’s a double pane insulated glass window.

And then the D050 wine guardian and cooling unit is in the ceiling. There where the evaporator is in the ceiling.

There’s a line set that runs the condenser outside. That was one of the challenges because this space is in the middle of the building. So, the lines that we ran were a little bit further than what we would recommend.

So, we had to make some considerations and insulation factors and all of that to make it work.

What Wood and Stain Was Chosen for this Restaurant Wine Cellar Racking?

This is our unfinished walnut with a clear satin coat.

Yeah. Originally, he wanted the stain, but it just wasn’t in the budget.

I believe he was looking at sapele mahogany in the beginning, but that with the stain and the clear coat would be too, too much.

And outside of the range of the budget, once I showed him mahogany, which most people want, if it’s not within the budget, then I show them the walnut and if they love the walnut, why not put the clear finish on it for about the same price as the sapele mahogany on its own?

But you know, because of a restaurant setting the clear coat was chosen over a stain. The stain is to help protect the wood.

Building in a Commercial Wine Cellar in a Small Space: Bottle Capacity for Buckhead’s Storage Room Turned Restaurant Wine Cellar

were trying to accommodate or maximize capacity in this small room that, you know, the width especially.

But, you know, I think the racking is about 107 inches tall and then the height of the ceiling was 160.

So, we couldn’t really increase the height of the racks. However, we put the cradles up there for these large format bottles and magnums to be able to include as an addition to the capacity.

So, it helped to increase capacity, number one.

And [secondly], it then helped store these large format bottles that he had. Those openings are 4×4, so most four seven fifties would fit. Obviously, you can fit in there some champagne, some magnums.

And then the difference with the parallel is the height between the bars is about five inches.

So, depending on the bottle, most size bottles could fit into this space.

[Looking at the space and shelving] Would we be able to build a wine cellar in there?

Originally he was wanting double deep. But, you know, the room is only three and a half feet wide and about 18 feet deep.

So that was the challenge.

And the racks that were in there (or the wooden shelving that was in there in the first place) was deeper than these. These are like 12 and three quarter inch width or depth racking. The shelving that was in there, it was deeper. So, it made it feel even more claustrophobic to your point.

But it worked out just fine.

And instead of a storage room and wine being all over the restaurant, just being able to have it under air and maintained in proper cooling is such a benefit for them.