Front Burner: Meet Mr. Bill
Bill Philips is the owner of Mr. Bill's Wine Cellar in Roanoke. Photo by Eric Brady l The Roanoke Times
As the 21-year-old manager of a construction site in North Carolina, Bill Philips “didn’t know squirt about wine except that red is different from white,” he said.
He still isn’t sure what made two young men, who had just started a wine distribution company, offer him a job.
“They’d probably been drinking too much of that wine they were selling,” he said, laughing.
Or maybe not. It strikes me that those fellows probably recognized a future wino when they saw one.
I use the term “wino” in an endearing way because Philips, the 6-foot-6-inch owner of Roanoke’s newest wine shop, was long ago nicknamed “Tallwino.”
For someone who ended up working in wine distribution for more than 35 years, mostly for Blue Ridge Beverage Co. in Salem, opening a bottle shop seems like a natural career progression. But it took awhile for Philips’ family to persuade him to open Mr. Bill’s Wine Cellar on Brambleton Avenue in Roanoke.
“I’d thought about it and people had asked, and I just said ‘I don’t know,’ ” Philips said. “I guess I was a little bit of a chicken.”
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February 9, 2011 - 7:09 AM
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Oh, I thought this was going to be about Mr. Hand putting Mr. Bill on the front burner.
Ooooh no! Haha. Bill Philips has a Mr. Bill figurine on the front counter. He has a nice sense of humor.
Great article Lindsey, I enjoyed reading it!
Btw… if Mr. Bill is 6’6″, forget about Sluggo, I wouldn’t want to meet Mr. Hand!
Indeed!
Mag, I had the same response. OH NOOOOO!
This store looks great – you can’t have too many wine purveyors!
On another note, I read a review this am in the NYT of a restaurant named Husk in Charleston. The descriptions of food make me want to roadtrip down there just for an eatfest.
That’s Sean Brock’s new restaurant. He’s one of the chefs who came to Roanoke with Bryan Voltaggio for the special guest dinner at Local Roots back during the summer.
He and Husk were recently mentioned in Esquire, as well. He also runs McCrady’s in Charleston.
Dang, I just realized that I forgot to put a Nooo after my “Oh”.