ASTOR WINES & SPIRITS
UNVEILS
ASTOR CENTER
DOWNTOWN'S EPICUREAN CULTURAL CENTER
OPENING FEBRUARY, 2006

THEODORE DE VINNE PRESS BUILDING
399 LAFAYETTE IN NYC

PRESS CONTACT WORKHOUSE PUBLICITY, CEO
ADAM NELSON TEL: 212. 645. 8006

"Perhaps because we have a history of over 35 years, Astor thinks about having relationships with our customers, rather than transactions.  And because the interests and appetites of our customers continue to grow, we have added the facilities and amenities to allow those relationships to flourish. To educate our customers, in addition to our frequent free in-store tastings, we will have The Study, our 36-seated classroom for both wine and food classes, so that our customers will have the option of a more intense learning experience;  we have added to our capacity to properly store and offer finer selections through our temperature-controlled Cool Room, for fragile Organic wines, delicate dessert wines, or rare older vintages; we will present our Saké selection in an area maintained at forty degrees; we will have microturbine co-generators to maintain proper temperature control throughout our cellar, in the first totally "green" wine store; we will have the capacity to grow our selections, enabled by the 50% increase in the size of the store; and, above all, we have added to the extraordinary cadre of Astor associates, committed to the ideals of relationship-building." Andrew Fisher, President of Astor Wines & Spirits/Astor Center.

NEW YORK- Due to open February 2006, Astor Wines & Spirits new Astor Center will become an integrated cultural center for food and wine education designed for laymen and connoisseurs alike. The Center celebrates what’s next in wine and culinary arts with the relocation and expansion of downtown landmark Astor Wines & Spirits, serving as the cornerstone of the Center, and the creation of The Study, an important epicurean classroom and event space to be located on the second floor. Carrying on the tradition of making wine approachable, Astor Center will uphold an open forum for learning, encouraging a world in which artisan producers, merchants, life-long enthusiasts, professionals and novices share in the advancement of knowledge and a cultural exchange about food and wine. Astor Center, an epicurean cultural center to be located at the landmark Theodore De Vinne Press Building on the corner of Fourth and Lafayette Streets in New York City. To schedule a walk thru during construction or to interview Andrew Fisher, President of Astor Wines & Spirits/Astor Center, interested media please contact Workhouse Publicity, publicist Anna De Souza directly by telephone 212. 645. 8006 or via email anna@workhousepr.com

Foundedby Edwin Fisher in 1968, Astor Wines & Spirits is a downtown institution that holds the distinction of being New York City’s largest wine store. The new location allows Astor Wines & Spirits to increase its selling space by almost 50%, providing an even larger selection of wines and spirits and offering unparalleled opportunities to focus on artisan and organic wines. The Study at Astor Center, New York City’s first home to a world-renowned culinary institute, will provide a forum for the advancement of food and wine knowledge through professional and novice classes, tastings, and events. The landmark De Vinne Press Building will house Astor Center, enhancing all shopping and learning experiences by providing a warm historic venue in which participants can embrace the exchange of gastronomic information.

“My father has been a visionary in the wine and spirits industry. The creation of Astor Center has been fueled by his legacy and the family commitment to contribute to making great wine more accessible. When we expanded Astor Wines & Spirits in 1980, we stood apart from other stores by allowing for an approachable and extensive wine selection in an unpretentious environment. Astor Center is the next step in a life-long commitment to expanding the accessibility of food and wine and to our ongoing role as members of a thriving and diverse community.” Andrew Fisher, President of Astor Wines & Spirits/Astor Center.

Under the direction of Andrew Fisher, Astor Center’s team includes Richard Leal, Executive Vice President, BillKenny, General Manager, Lorena Ascencios, Wine Buyer, KristinBundy, Promotions Manager, Doug Duda, (Host of A&E’s The Well-Seasoned Traveler), Executive Director, Gregory Dal Piaz, Director of Educational Programming, Kym Apotas, Assistant WineBuyer, Amanda Crawford, Sales Manager, Astor Wines & Spirits/ Astor Center, Andy Jacobson, Creative Director, and Juan CarlosCasas and Javier Romero, Graphic Designers. Fisher sought out New Jersey-based architectsfrom Tricarico Architecture and Design and their team of engineers to create the multi-level Center.  

Amenities at AstorCenter
• THE STUDY: A premier epicurean event space serving as a wine and food enthusiast’s resource for prominent seminars, lectures, conferences and classes in a dazzling space. The wealth and diversity of wine and culinary heritage is brought to life through showcases of talent who offer everything from the art of cooking to the sampling of diverse cuisines and wines from around the world. The Study will offer introductory hands-on classes, intensive boot camp courses, career programs, live cooking demonstrations, visiting chef signings, public and private wine tastings, and more. The Study is a 3500-square-foot food and wine tasting school that includes a special events space able to accommodate up to up to 75 people for parties and receptions and a 36-seat classroom featuring amenities fit for professional wine classes—classroom seating, white table tops, sinks at each station and a special lighted area at each station suited to examine the color and clarity of each wine. The Study’s events will be serviced by a top-of-the-line kitchen equipped with digital audio and visual that allows participants to see and speak with the chefs at work. Visitors to The Study at Astor Center can purchase wine essentials used within the showcases at Astor Wines & Spirits downstairs.

• COOL ROOM: A state of the art, temperature-controlled room containing fragile, organic, old-vintage and rare wines. The cool room will house approximately 500 wines. They will not be chosen based on price, rather by the fragility of the wines that require a constant temperature of approximately 58 degrees to maintain the wines’ integrity. In this vein, the cool room is intended for every customer, not just for those looking for expensive bottles; prices range from $10 and up. Astor experts offer guidance as to the quality of each item and the reason why each require a temperature-controlled environment.

• ORGANICS: Astor Wines & Spirits is expanding their organic wine selection and featuring these wines in a large special section for promotion and educational purposes. With the exception of those which require the Cool Room environment, all organic wines will be grouped together, including biodynamic, certified organic, practicing organic and natural wines.

• SAKÉ: Astor Center will house the largest selection of saké in New York City, and whether it’s on display in the store or stored in the cellar, all saké will be maintained at 40 degrees. Astor’s extraordinary selection will be expanded to include more Nama, Junmai, Ginjo, and Daiginjo sakés.       

• RESEARCH: Astor’s wine buyers sample wines daily in the search for excellent releases to add to Astor’s selection. Three times a week, Astor’s wine consultants taste new and existing items with Astor’s wine buyers to become familiar with the new selections. The “Research” room is the staff tasting room where all of this happens, and it can now be viewed from the sales floor. As specialists in wine, Astor wine buyers and consultants believe that demonstrating their continuous interaction with new selections is invaluable customer service, ensuring that each customer is confident in the expertise of Astor’s wine consultants and the choice of wines available at Astor.

• TASTINGS: The tasting area of Astor Wines & Spirits has been improved and expanded to accommodate its free weekly tastings. New amenities to the tasting area include proper tasting glasses, running water and much more space to augment customer comfort.

• LIBRARY: The center will develop and maintain a comprehensive library of literature imbued with a “sit-and-stay-awhile” feel. Astor Wines & Spirits will expand its book collection pertaining to its philosophy on wines and the wines that the store promotes—most notably artisan producers and organics.

“With the unparalleled ability to provide a top-notch setting and service to both the casual foodie and most ardent wine aficionado, Astor Center will change the culinary landscape of New York City. Starting with a blank slate, we have the unique advantage of customizing our facility to meet the specific needs of both the food and wine communities. No aspect of either our state-of-the-art classroom or our gracious dining room has been ignored. I am excited by the flexibility this affords us and am looking forward to presenting the finest chefs, winemakers, and products in a setting that allows them to make the most of the time they share with our guests.” Gregory Dal Piaz,Director of Educational Programming, Astor Wines & Spirits/Astor Center

"We've always taken pride in supporting the organic producers, whose practices are respectful of nature and of the consumer. We believe in unmanipulated wines that are an honest expression of variety, terroir and vintage. Astor's new, larger space will allow us to showcase the best of what these producers have to offer." Lorena Ascencios, Wine Buyer Astor Wines & Spirits/Astor Center

"We look forward to offering our customers a better experience in learning about food and wine by enhancing our services and expanding our programming. A fresh outlook on novice and professional food and wine classes is an important part of our growth, as is the addition of private tasting events for small groups, winemaker tasting events, interactive learning stations and educational customer correspondence. Through existing relationships with fellow neighborhood institutions like The Public Theater, Cooper Union and Merchant's House Museum, we hope to expand our programming to the community as well." Kristin Bundy, Promotions Manager, Astor Wines & Spirits/Astor Center.

“The team behind Astor Center is committed to the creation of an environment where everyone can taste and discuss food and wine in an atmosphere that complements the full range of this experience. In building Astor Center, we wanted to find a way to express the creative nature of our business in epicurean terms. To that end, we’ve created a comfortable environment where customers can not only find their favorite wines, but learn and explore new and interesting wines. Our staff is incredibly enthusiastic about sharing their discoveries, and we are proud to offer their expertise in both a shopping and learning environment.” states Andrew Fisher, President of Astor Wines & Spirits/Astor Center.

ASTOR WINES & SPIRITS: The Fisher Family
After World War II, Edwin Fisher started what became a chain of 24 liquor stores in New Jersey, and in 1968 bought a Manhattan store, Astor Liquors, now a large operation at the southwest corner of Astor Place and Lafayette Street and aptly named Astor Wines & Spirits. Andrew Fisher, along with his father have been actively involved in the downtown community since the late sixties. Andrew was one of the founders of “Committee for Astor Place”, along with John Sawhill, President of New York University and former Secretary of Energy, and Jack White, President of Cooper Union. In the 80’s the Committee for Astor Place took on neighborhood problems while focusing on ways to build and improve the neighborhood’s facilities. The crowning achievement of the Committee was the complete renovation of the Astor Place Subway Station. Edwin Fisher is one of the founders of the NOHO Business Improvement District (BID) and is currently serving as its Vice President. Along with the impeccably restored land mark DeVinne Press Building, he has overseen the commercial revitalization of NOHO and its surrounds.

"Converting the first level of this magnificent turn of the century structure has taken months of design and preparation in order to create the ultimate wine shopping experience in New York City. The job will necessitate maintaining the guidelines of the building’s distinguished Landmarks Status, while making the store practical, accessible and inviting to our customers. The designs feature exposed brick and clay arched ceilings, opening a 15’ span in a 36” thick wall, temperature-controlled wine storage and an ample wine tasting area.  A semicircular cash wrap will finish the customer experience with ease of payment and expedited delivery processing." Richard Leal, Executive Vice President, Astor Wines & Spirits/Astor Center.

THEODORE DE VINNE PRESS BUILDING
The De Vinne Press Building is among the most sophisticated works of masonry in New York, a tour de force of honest, simple bricklaying built for one of the premier printing companies of a century ago. Although first developed in the 1830s as a street of top-tier urban houses, after the mid-19th century Lafayette Place (renamed Lafayette Street around 1900) evolved into a literary and cultural center. The Astor Library (now the Joseph Papp Public Theater) was built there from 1853 to 1881, and Cooper Union was finished nearby in 1859. After the Civil War, Lafayette and the surrounding streets began to fill up with publishers, paper dealers, stationers, bookbinders, printers, engravers and a broad variety of periodicals, like ''The Homeless Child,'' an advocacy journal published out of the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin at Lafayette and Great Jones Street in the 1880's and 1890's. The Aldine Club, for printers and publishers, was in an old house just south of the Astor Library. In 1886, Theodore De Vinne built a new building for his printing company at the northeast corner of Fourth Street and Lafayette. De Vinne was already established as a leading American printer; a founder of the Grolier Club, an organization devoted to the history of printing, he had printed the club's first publication, ''Decree of the Star Chamber Concerning Printing.'' Born in 1828, he entered the printing business in the 1840's and printed many of the leading American magazines, like the St. Nicholas Magazine, Scribner's Monthly and The Century. A connoisseur of the printed work, De Vinne wrote books like ''The Invention of Printing,'' ''Correct Composition'' and ''Title Pages.'' He was successful in business but still considered printing nearly an art. Writing in 1897 in the magazine The Outlook, he said that to try to teach it was no better than giving ''a formula for the painting of a picture or the writing of a poem.'' Designed by Babb, Cook & Willard, the De Vinne building is a masterpiece of understated power, big, broad plain brick walls decorated almost entirely by their own constructive elements— strapwork quoining at the corners, high deep arches, multipaned windows—and a sweeping arcade of window openings across the top. Writing in The Architectural Record in 1904, the critic Russell Sturgis said: ''No photographs give the full sense of its bigness, its breadth and its mass. More than once visitors on their way to see it have been pulled up suddenly by a sudden sense of its large presence.'' De Vinne's building, along with most Victorian architecture, was in eclipse by the mid-20th century, although the critic Lewis Mumford went out of his way to call it ''a special bouquet'' in The New York Times in 1953. In the rediscovery of the city's architectural history beginning in the 1960's, it was designated a landmark in 1966. In their book ''Rise of the New York Skyscraper” (Yale, 1996), Sarah Bradford Landau and Carl W. Condit call it ''one of the nation's outstanding architectural monuments,'' tracing its muscular, arched character back to the German rundbogenstil of the mid-19th century.