Mendham Man Opens Wine Store with Delivery

BYOB is the name of the game at several Morristown restaurants. In response to this, two locals are launching a new business at The Highlands at Morristown Station next to the incoming restaurant, The Godfather.

Cambridge Wines is the new business idea from co-owners Anthony Pinelli, originally from New York, and David Bernat, who is from Mendham.

After leasing the space in January, they plan to open at the end of June or early July. As for their grand opening, they plan to hold off and do a joint one with The Godfather.

They met at Manhattan College where Pinelli was studying Business Finance and Bernat was studying Business Management

“We were always in the restaurant business and we were always coming up with great ideas,” said Bernat.

“When I got out of school, I managed a restaurant in Morristown and realized it, and many other places, were BYOB,” said Pinelli. “People had to trek across town to get liquor and all those places were lottery ticket stores. We wanted to give them something more sophisticated and high end that was reasonably priced.”

They’re looking to carry wine, craft beers, liquor and focus on unique, artisanal products.”

Delivery

They’re teaming up with local restaurants, which will carry Cambridge Wines’ menu.

“We just bought a vespa and we plan to cater to the BYOBs by delivering our items tableside, or you can call Cambridge ahead of time and have it there when you arrive at the restaurant,” said Pinelli, adding that they plan to do home deliveries as well.

Name and Concept

“The name came from an apartment on Cambridge Avenue we lived at while in college,” said Bernat. “We want to build this around hospitality and service.”

They plan to offer tasting notes and pairings as well as build a customer profile system to continuously better their product line.

“We’ll follow up with you and see how you like the wine or item you bought and we have a good POS system to build customer profiles,” said Bernat.

One of the features they plan to incorporate wine and beer clubs as well as classes on wine and craft beers to be led by knowledgeable staff.

Their website is under construction and will launch in 2-3 weeks. In the meantime, those who go to CambridgeWinesNJ.com can join the mailing list.

They’re keeping it local as much as possible, down to their business cards, which features a logo that was hand-drawn by local artist Tom Paniconi.

“Tom will also make the sign in front and we plan to showcase his artwork in the store,” they said.

Location, Location, Location

With parking as such a hot topic in Morristown, one of the selling points of their location is the free and convenient retail parking the Highlands provides for their store.

“We’ve seen the transition of Morristown of where it is now compared to 10 years ago,” said Pinelli.

“We chose Morristown because I know it well and I think this is the next section to grow,” added Bernat.