4 days ago
Local beer and wine cellar up for auction after 70 years in business
AUSTINTOWN, Ohio (WKBN) — Lou's Beer and Wine Cellar has been a fixture for 70 years on Route 46 in Austintown, owned the entire time by the same family — but Lou's will soon get a new owner.
The man who has run it for 51 years, Randy DiNunzio, has decided it's time to retire, so the store will be sold at auction.
It was Randy DiNunzio's grandparents, Lou and Philomena DiNunzio, who in 1955 started Lou's Beer and Wine Cellar in Austintown.
'My grandfather puts my grandmother in the store to run the business. She knows nothing about it, so she asked my father, 'Could you please quit college to come here and work with me and rescue us because we're going to lose the house?' Grandma put the house up for collateral and bought a business he knew nothing about,' Randy DiNunzio Randy DiNunzio now knows all about the store. He's run Lou's for 51 years, working 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday — and occasionally on Sunday. And he's done it alone, with no employees. DiNunzio hasn't taken a vacation in five years.
'I'm a one-man band. People that come here, they know I'm here and they can call me. I'm here. I'm always here. That makes a difference,' he said.
Randy DiNunzio admits the work has come with a price.
'My kids grew up. I wasn't at home. My wife — as I say, I'm on deployment for 46 years — Zelda, I love you. I'm coming home,' he said. '80 hours a week. It's crazy.'
At 69 and having dedicated his life to making Lou's Beer and Wine Cellar a success — and missing everything else in between — Randy DiNunzio has decided to sell the business. He has a granddaughter and a grandson on the way. He says it's time.
'I gotta go visit everybody. I gotta get together and I gotta enjoy the rest of my life because if I stay here, I'm not going to see anything. I'll see this, but not the family,' he said.
What DiNunzio will be selling is one of the premier wine shops between Cleveland and Pittsburgh, with 30,000 bottles and 2,500 different varieties. He also specializes in craft beers. He's the consummate salesman.
'It's like being on stage all day. You're an entertainer — when I go home at night, sometimes I'm more exhausted from the interaction with people than the stacking and loading,' he said. DiNunzio has also thought about what it'll be like to no longer be the man behind Lou's Beer and Wine Cellar.
'It'll be hard. It'll be sad. It'll be a weird feeling because it's my life. It's everything.'
Lou's Beer and Wine Cellar is being sold by auction — at Kiko's Auction. The property also includes two apartments and a four-car garage. The bidding starts on June 24 and ends at 1 p.m. on June 26.
DiNunzio is hoping to get from $2 million to $2.5 million for the business, but it's an absolute auction. The sale goes to the highest bidder.
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