New Shelburne Liquor Licenses go to Wheel-View Farm and Planned Deerfield Ave. Eatery

The Recorder, July 12th, 2016, by Diane Broncaccio. Liquor licenses approved this week will allow one new business to open and another to grow.

Ashfield baker Gretchen Gerstner got the OK for a wine and beer license for her new restaurant, and Wheel-View Farm will be able to expand its hard cider tasting bar.

Gerstner intends to open a new breakfast and lunch spot at 4 Deerfield Ave., in the old glassblower’s studio near the Constantin and Young Gallery.

Gerstner’s restaurant will be called Baked, and will serve full breakfasts and lunches roughly from 7 a.m. until 6 or 7 p.m., plus sell a full line of baked goods. The space is currently being renovated, but will eventually seat about 45 customers, she told selectmen, who approve licenses in town.

Gerstner said she has been in the food business since the age of 15 and makes nine types of breads, including focaccia and bagels. Her specialty has been wedding cakes, and she formerly worked at Elmer’s in Ashfield. She is also a part-time Ashfield police officer.

Gerstner wants to be able to serve glasses of wine or beer with lunch. She said this is her first time applying for a liquor license. However, she has taken New York State bartender training intended to prevent intoxication, underage drinking, and drunk driving. She said she plans to hire about eight employees to start with, and would like them to take this training, also.

When asked when her restaurant would open, Gerstner said she is hoping to open before Labor Day.

Standing Bull

A ways from the Shelburne Falls downtown, in the rural, Patten Hill section of Shelburne, John and Carolyn Wheeler of Wheel-View Farm received the board’s approval for a general on-premise wine license to promote their Standing Bull hard cider.

The Wheelers already have a farmer-winery license that allows them to sell their homemade alcoholic cider by the bottle, and permits them to offer one-ounce samples of the beverage on the premises.

But the new license will enable them to sell full glasses of cider in a new tasting/sales room they are setting up on their farm at 212 Reynolds Road.

When asked why they are seeking a “wine” license, Carolyn Wheeler said the state doesn’t yet have an on-premise license that specifies hard cider. She said their hard-cider has less than 7 percent alcohol. It is made from local apples in a fermenting room near where the tasting room is set up.

Wheeler said they hope to open the tasting room in mid-August on weekends, from noon to 6 p.m. She said she has been talking with other local food producers, so that the tasting room can offer crackers with local cheeses, and other foods that go with cider. She said the area will also be a sales area for Wheel-View-made maple syrup and grass-fed beef. The tasting room will also have sweet cider and sparkling cider that is also made at Wheel-View.

When the Wheelers have final approval from the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission, they hope to be open weekends through New Years, and then to re-open the tasting room on weekends during maple sugaring season.