Club Newsletter - March 2026

Gary Parker
Mar 1
5 min read

Meet Gary Parker: A Journey Through Wine and Culinary Delights

The Backstory of a Passionate Entrepreneur

Canvas Rebel: Gary, appreciate you joining us today. What’s the backstory behind how you came up with the idea for your business?

Gary Parker: I started my career selling wine directly to consumers through in-home tastings and education. It was a 100% commission job. My customers loved the wine I sold them. They often told me they would buy even more if they had a proper place to store it.

I researched wine storage facilities in San Diego and discovered there were none. Back in 1983, only two places in the Los Angeles area offered professional wine storage. Since nobody had basements in our city, I realized there was a strong need for a reliable wine storage solution.

I rented a small suite in an industrial area in Sorrento Valley, built 33 wine lockers, and installed a cooling unit to test the market. During the day, I waited at the storage facility for customers to call, while working as a Maître d’ and wine steward at a fine dining restaurant in the evenings.

The first eighty days were quiet. I began to question my assumptions about the demand for wine storage in San Diego. Then, one day, a call came in. My first customer! Within forty-five days, all 32 lockers were filled, and I had a waiting list. I quickly rented an annex facility and grew to over one hundred renters in just six months.

One of my locker renters was a developer working on the building I occupy today. We struck a deal where I would be the anchor tenant, allowing me to design the 5,000 square foot space to my specifications. My experiences in restaurants and my passion for the wine industry shaped this venture.

We designed a restaurant, a wine retail space, and created the first three-level wine storage facility within the warehouse area. We added refrigeration units to maintain the right temperature and humidity.

I chose French cuisine for our restaurant because I love it and had worked in two French restaurants for about eight years.

Today, we have 219 lockers, nearly fully occupied with very little turnover. The WineSellar & Brasserie was the first business in the nation to feature a fine dining restaurant, retail wine sales, and a wine storage facility.

A Lifelong Dedication to Wine and Food

Canvas Rebel: Gary, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Gary Parker: I was studying architecture at San Diego State College when a professor advised me to get a job in the industry or transfer to a Cal Poly school. I had just moved from Los Angeles in 1973 and didn’t want to leave this fabulous city. So, I took a part-time job doing graphic illustration work while working every position I could at a French restaurant in Solana Beach, Mon Ami.

The moment I took my first sip of great wine, I was hooked. I dove into learning everything I could about wine (this was pre-internet). I decided to dedicate my life to wine and food. I even fantasized about owning my own restaurant and playing jazz in it. At the time, I was studying the saxophone, but I only play sporadically now.

Now, we are celebrating our 38th year in business, and we’ve built a loyal following of wine enthusiasts and fine dining lovers.

We host special wine dinners every month, weekly wine tastings, and provide lunch and dinner service to the Sorrento Mesa area.

One of my proudest achievements is our four different levels of wine of the month club memberships, with 400-500 subscribers. We provide educational tasting notes for each wine, recipes, an epicurean newsletter, and a free tasting of the wines each month in our restaurant. All wines in each level of the wine club are sold below their suggested retail prices and come from various wine-growing regions worldwide. Some members have been with us since we started the wine club in 1999, and they’re still with us today, twenty-seven years later!

Funding the Dream

Canvas Rebel: Can you open up about how you funded your business?

Gary Parker: In 1988, I committed to moving into the yet-to-be-built building we still occupy today. I needed $120,000 to help with building and furnishing the restaurant, including outfitting a new kitchen and stocking the wine shop. I had never raised money before. In those pre-internet days, there was little reference material on attracting investors for my dream.

I collected various prospectuses designed for larger companies and used them as a general outline for my investment package. I included working projections based on expected diners, food costs, beverage costs, labor, rent, utilities, and potential rental income from the wine storage lockers. I considered every possible cost factor and matched it against projected revenue streams.

The investment package was about 20 pages long. I added a touch of romance with photos of other restaurants, wine bars, and retail wine shops. I raised all the money in just three months.

Diverse Revenue Streams: The Key to Longevity

Canvas Rebel: Do you have multiple revenue streams? If so, can you talk to us about those streams and how you developed them?

Gary Parker: Having multiple revenue sources at The WineSellar & Brasserie has been crucial for our long-term success.

Initially, we operated a full-service wine shop, a French restaurant serving lunch only, and a wine storage facility for private collectors to store their wine safely.

We later opened The Brasserie Restaurant to serve dinner as well as lunch, introducing winemaker dinners and themed wine tasting events.

In 1999, we began selling wines through an online auction, boosting our wine sales by $500,000 annually.

In 2000, we launched three separate levels of wine of the month clubs, which are still thriving today with hundreds of members.

In 2001, we started conducting wine tours for small groups of 16 people. We now conduct two tours every year, visiting places like South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Tasmania, France, Italy, Spain, Chile, Argentina, Greece, Sicily, Portugal, and this year, Croatia.

By sharing my journey, I hope to inspire you to explore the world of wine and food. Whether you're looking to reserve a table for a special occasion or want to learn more about our wine lockers for storage, we invite you to join us at The WineSellar & Brasserie.

For more information, check out our wine club.