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Texas winery Wine for the People is relocating its tasting room from its current Texas AVA Tasting Room in the Hill Country into Austin proper this fall. The new location will share space with American restaurant Spread & Co. in the Rosedale neighborhood at 1601 West 38th Street starting on Friday, November 18.
Under this new partnership, Spread & Co. will serve food and drinks from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. Wine for the People will operate the space from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Wednesday, Thursday, and Sundays, and until 10 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The winery will offer tastings, wine glasses and bottles, plus cheese, charcuteries, burrata, tinned fish, butter boards, and paired food from Spread.
Wine for the People founder, owner, and winemaker Rae Wilson had always wanted to open something within the city of Austin. “Wine for the People was founded within Austin city limits and it’s always been a goal to bring our businesses back to our roots,” she shares with Eater over email. Originally, she launched a Kickstarter campaign in 2019 for those purposes but halted the project because of the pandemic.
The format of a wine-tasting room and restaurant sharing a space made sense to both Wilson and Spread’s co-owners Rosemary and Austin Ewald. “With real estate prices continuing to skyrocket, both businesses saw an opportunity to maximize the efficiency of the space,” Wilson tells Eater.
Wine for the People’s current tasting room was also a shared space but with another Texas winery, C.L. Butaud Wines, out on 12345 Pauls Valley Road, which opened in 2020. Wine for the People’s last day off Fitzhugh Road will be on Sunday, November 13. C.L., run by Randy Hester, will remain at the Fitzhugh address.
Wilson founded Wine for the People in 2010 with a focus on using only Texas grapes. She made her first bottle in 2014. Under her company are the Dandy Rosé and the La Valentia. She’ll continue to produce wine in the Hill Country.
Update, Friday, November 11, 10:21 a.m.: This article, originally published on September 27, has been updated with Wine for the People’s opening date and further menu details.
