Issue link: http://papercitymagazine.uberflip.com/i/1087553
WHAT'S NEW IN AND AROUND ROUND TOP … gossip, intrigue, a liquor store! A t long last, Round Top has a liquor store! Welcome, Pop-A- Top Bottle Shop Too. Tiffany and Britt Reid and their two boys, Nate and Levi, lost their home in La Grange in Hurricane Harvey. Tiffany was contemplating what she could do to help solidify her family's future when she saw that Pop-A-Top Bottle Shop in La Grange, which originally opened in the 1960s, was for sale. They bought it and were in the midst of remodeling and transforming it when the Round Top developer Mark Massey walked in, saw their vision, and suggested a store location. Their Henkel Square space opened in February and is a new breed of liquor store — antique display cases house bottles of booze and vino. An old London phone booth displays gin and European liqueurs. Then there is the clubby scotch/ whiskey/bourbon room — a cigar lounge with oversized leather chairs and fireplace and a humidor stocked with premium Cohiba and Montecristo cigars. "Our goal is to be a one-stop shop offering beer, cocktail, and wine glasses (glass and plastic), wine openers, bottle openers, etc.," Tiffany says. Custom orders are also available. Cheers! Pop-A-Top Bottle Shop Too, 341 E. Mill St., at Henkel Square. POP-A-TOP BOTTLE SHOP TOO DEBUTS C inda and Armando Palacios' Round Top empire (Mandito's, Bad Hombres, Lulu's, Armando's Round Top Houses) keeps expanding. In the space next to Lulu's restaurant, they've opened Round Top Wine Shop. "What I want to create here is something like a French Wine shop, which are very small, have great wines, and you can buy bar accessories, too," Armando says. "A charcuterie board, a fancy wine opener, vintage glassware." Round Top Wine Shop is the ideal spot for an aperitif before dinner next door at Lulu's, or a digestif after. Or both. "The interior is drop-dead gorgeous," he says. "All cedar — the floors, walls, and ceiling. People want to go someplace small and intimate." Round Top Wine Shop, 206 Mill St. ROUND TOP WINE SHOP T wo Sparrows Roasting Co. opened in July 4, 2016, and quickly outgrew the original location. Owners Barbara and Jacob Loyd waited patiently for the perfect spot, and sure enough, they now have a second building: a historic 1840s log cabin in the heart of Henkel Square. A beautiful custom cedar bar top by local maker Cooper Dalhart serves as a gathering place for coffee, with beer and wine coming soon to pair with small bites, cheese, and charcuterie. Two Sparrows Roasting Co., 104 Schumann Lane at Henkel Square. MORE COFFEE, PLEASE W hatever restaurateur Lee Ellis is cooking up, we're eating. He and wife Melissa have recently decamped to Round Top, and now he's secured a spot in Henkel Square. He plans to open Ellis Motel in a two- story historical property, dating to the 1800s, later this year. He describes it as equal parts "emporium, cocktails, hangout." Ellis Motel will be a bar, but all of the antique and vintage furniture inside is for sale, along with packaged gourmet food. For now, we'll get our Ellis fix at his Bar in the Arbors. Between tents 1 and 2, he serves up mimosas and Bloody Marys in the morning, switching to Ranch Waters, and margaritas in the evening. Bar at The Arbors, 1503 Texas Highway 237, March 27 – April 6. ELLIS MOTEL H enkel Square's Humble Donkey and Lower40 have nearly doubled the shopping experience at their Palmer Barn retail space with a 1,000-square- foot addition. Known for its charming mash-up of owner John Lowery's bold canvases that nod to life in the country, the Humble Donkey is also home to co-owner Laurie Lowery's Lower40 concept of mid-century furnishings alongside pieces updated for Round Top residences, such as a Biedermeier sofa upholstered in original Texas feed sacks, as well as alpaca blankets, handmade straw hats from Houston-based Moo- chila, and jewelry fashioned from antique French medals, coins, and brooches by local designer Mallory Nicholson's atelier Mallory Et Cie. 195 Henkel Circle, at Henkel Square, humbledonkeystudio. com. Catherine D. Anspon HUMBLE DONKEY KICKS UP HENKEL SQUARE 110 Armando Palacios Lee & Melissa Ellis BY ANNE LEE PHILLIPS Cocktails at Lulu's