continued success to us both in building Queens Wines & Liquors FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT www.qns.com may 12, 2016 • TIMES 19 59-03 MYRTLE AVENUE, RIDGEWOOD Myrtle & Forest Avenues • 1-718-821-1500 QUEENS With best wishes to Maureen Walthers 66th ALWAYS THE BEST PRICES IN TOWN THE BIG STORE WITH BIG SAVINGS #1 IN DISCOUNT SALES WINES & LIQUORS Queens Wines & Liquors Gets Better With Age When Herman Hochberg fi rst opened a liquor store on Myrtle Avenue, he had never heard of vodka. The then 18-yearold college student had decided to drop out of school early in order to pursue the family trade, and set up a modest shop near Forest Avenue to sell wines and spirits while helping his ailing father. Now, almost 69 years later, his Queens Wines and Liquors carries hundreds of vodka brands from around the world. The store has grown to about fi ve times the size of the original, and refl ected the shifting cultural makeup of the community it has served since 1948. “I’m very concerned about the community, and I like to give back to the community,” said Hochberg, who was born on the Brooklyn side of Ridgewood and still tends to dayto day duties at his store. “This community has been very good to me, and I’ve repaid this community in many ways. I took the worst block in the this community and turned it into the best, by building an awarding 68 unit condominium in an old abandoned eye saw coal yard.” Hermen was the founding father of the Myrtle Avenue Business Improvement District and the Ridgewood Local Development Corp. He still serves as a chairperson today. In addition he was part of Community Board 5 for 20 years and presently still serves as chairman of Wyckoff Heights Medical Center. “I saw that wine is part of the future of our industry,” said Hochberg. Whose store originally concentrated on spirits and only sold bulk wine. “I wanted to become profi cient and become an expert in wine… Knowledge is power, and I wanted to make sure I was well-armed.” Because many of the area’s European immigrants like the Italians drank wine daily with their meals, he saw an opening to cater to the community’s specifi c tastes based on their cultural backgrounds. As Hochberg’s selection broadened, so did his customers. When Romanian and Yugoslavian immigrants 59-03 started Myrtle moving en Ave. masse into the area in the ’70s, Hochberg began selling (Corner popular imported of Forest brands from Avenue) these countries to accommodate his new customers. Ridgewood, He would take NY trips 11385 to vineyards 718-821-1500 in Romania and the former Yugoslavia to study his products, then bring them back to his store for mass distribution. “I try and buy everything that would cater to the ethnicity of the community,” he said. “We had people coming from all over the city just for those wines.” Hochberg’s multicultural wines would give way to imported brands of vodka to serve the Polish community that took up in the neighborhood, and today he employs a staff fl uent in Romanian, Russian, Polish, German, Spanish and other Slavic languages to serve this mix of customers. Queens Wines and Liquors also stocks a large amount of domestic products to offer one of the most diverse selections in the city, according to Hochberg, and the store often promotes tastings and wine dinners to encourage novice connoisseurs. Hochberg personally selects many of his products and is happy to make suggestions based on his own experience. “I would get tremendous pleasure when a customer left with something that I recommended, and they would come back a day later and say, ‘Gee, that was terrifi c. Now I want something else,’” he said. “That gave me great satisfaction.” 1 9 7 8 Herrman Hochberrg & Fay ((Queeniie)) Hochberrg and the staff of the Ridgewood Times/ Times Newsweekly From Herman Hochberg and the staff Hochberg stands inside his store among the many wares his shop has o ered over the past 68 years. OPEN SUNDAY 12 - 5:45 pm OUR 68th WINES&YEAR WE ALWAYS BUY THE BIGGEST QUANTITY TO GET THE BEST PRICE AND PASS IT ON TO YOU
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