Jak's Wine Shop

Lololala

Ravi, who owns Jak's off-license, is planning to open a wine shop. He is currently looking at premises on the SGR. Apparently he fairly frequently gets people who come in from as far as Highgate and Muswell Hill who spend hundreds of pounds on wine. He wants to open a separate shop as he can only accommodate a limited selection of wines alongside all the banana bread flavoured vodka in the cornocopia of his shop at the moment. He asked me if I could post something on sg.org to assess local feeling about this.

Ian

I'm all in favour of a decent wine shop in SGR - one of the things missing from the area. <br>

chrisn4

Perhaps the Jak brothers could ask Haringey council to remove the graffiti from their shop shutters.The graffiti is an eyesore which downgrades the area.It was repainted with fresh graffiti recently which was not much better than the original graffiti.

Lololala

I think it was done so at their instigation by a local graffiti artist (apparently before it was painted with their logo people would randomly spray tags on it) at the instigation of Ravi and his brother, so they are unlikely to report it to the council. I used to live in the flat next door to the shop and always thought the graffiti logo looked rather cheerful.

ADGS

Agreed - I think it looks very jolly, and much better than bare steel even without considering the inevitable lesser graffiti which that would draw.<br>

gardener-joe

I like it ... SGR shopkeepers commisioning public art<br><br>

drewpasmith

I think the idea of a good wine shop on SGR is a great one. As Ian says, it's one of the things the area is missing and it'd be nice to spend in SG rather than at Highbury Vintners or Nicolas.

Mirandola

Yes, good wine shop would be great. <div><br></div><div>I don't mind the graffiti - but Jack's window display facing the street is nothing like as interesting as it should be given how excellent their stock is. </div><div><br></div><div>Miss Annie - how would you transform it?</div>

vetski

<P>Neither I nor my in-house wine buyer had any idea there was a good wine place here already - and @Mirandola';s right, if there was a window display indicating the joys within, we'd have been in a long time ago! In fact, I'm not even sure I know where Jak's is...but need to know as a matter of urgency. Banana bread-flavoured vodka? I'm there!</P>

Mirandola

It's opposite Jai Krishna. Phenomenal beer selection. 

chrisn4

if the twins who run "Jack's" have to have their shop shutter painted then it would be better to get a fine artist to paint something good.Rather than the graffiti lettering that is on there now.The parkland walk frog near the spriggan earth spirit sculpture is rather good however...  

andy

Oddbins over the hill has got much better recently and the guys who run it are really friendly. Something like Whitehall Wines is a good model of a decent local wine shop.

vetski

<P>@Mirandola, I noticed it this afternoon driving down SGR - and now I know where Jai Krishna is as well, I'd never really noticed it before (similarly Dinner Box)! The exterior is somewhat unprepossessing - it looks a lot like the kind of place which makes most of its money from Crucial & Special Brew...but now I know it's a treasure chest of hidden delights, I shall make a point of going in!</P> <P> </P>

ChangN4N6

Not a great selection, but no where round here does. Like a lot of shops round here it could be improved 100pc by spending £100 on a better carpet, layout, signage or cleaning windows etc. I hope the new wine shop is a success but it will need to be posher to get the right types in . Chang

Mirandola

I don't know what the wine choice is like,  but it's got as good a beer selection as I've ever seen. 

gardener-joe

The courteous and rather handsome Jaks bros have always held a good range of beers, wines and spirits as far as I am concerned ... I am always pleased with the result of a rummage at the back of their shop ... no double-entendre intended ... and they can always quickly get hold of occasional special needs ... modt recently creme de chataigne (chestnut)... the best thing to spruce up a cheap chilled champagne or cava ... just a drop or two ... heaven ... For my own part, I like the unchanging, down-at-heel style of the place which even after my many years living in SG makes the discoveries there all the more pleasing.

Arkady

I love Jacks, and probably go there three-four times a week.  They have the best beer selection I have ever seen, and are OK on the wine-front too.  The greyer of the two brothers did call me a do-gooder the other day though.<br>

Mirandola

Why? 

vetski

@gardener-joe, now that's just annoying; I hunted high and low for a bottle of creme de chataigne a couple of Christmases with no luck, and I should just have gone up the road! Will definitely pop in there this week.

Arkady

@Mirandola - because I "want to turn the area into a museum".  He declined to display a poster for the Conservation Area AGM.<br>

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odd stewart

Jak, take the Nicholas Nickleby place?<br><br><br>

mapsa

Jack's ran out of Rochefort 10 a few weeks back. Sent me into a deep depression until they got a restock.

andy

I had a lovely Goose Island in the Bull on Saturday. Also a 'mana wheat' beer from Hawaii which had a distinct pineapple flavour. It was nice, despite the description.

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andy

If by early you mean "until closing time" then yes, we were in early

Kaz

A wine shop would be excellent! SGR really could do with one! Highbury Vintners is very good, but just a bit too far. I have not been that impressed with either the Oddbins or the Nicolas Crouch End way. 

vetski

@Kaz, have you been to Oddbins recently? I think's it's got better since the manager bought it when the chain went bust. No argument about Nicolas, though!

miss annie

<p>Wine Alert!</p><p>New wine shop is opening in Crouch End in April - in Park Road</p><p><a href="http://www.bottleapostle.com/">http://www.bottleapostle.com/</a></p>;

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Kaz

@vetski, No I haven't been for a while, I have moved out of the area, hopefully just temporarily. To be fair, I have spent years working with wine, so I am a bit of a wine snob at times, but it does upset me that literally all the shops on SGR have exactly the same wines.