- What were you doing before you decided to pursue opening up your own wine and spirits shop? Prior to my life here, I was in the fashion design world, then into home textiles, then real estate, and now this.
- What are some personal goals you most want to accomplish through Happy Cork? I think the main goal is elevating and giving a platform to these black-owned and minority-owned brands. My goal would be to see this place grow to where it’s pretty much filled with nothing but black-owned, minority-owned wines and spirits. It’s a challenge. Everyday we’re searching and trying to find new brands to bring into the store, but with the movement going on right now, it’s been really nice. We’re seeing that there is the possibility to expand and do bigger things and more community outreach and stuff like that.
- This year has been a trying one for many small business owners. What, if any, were some of the challenges you faced, and how did you overcome those challenges? We were one of the businesses that never closed, so we never fully shut down. Even with the pandemic going on, we were able to stay open, but with that came quite a few challenges, because you are open, so you’re an essential worker and you’re coming in everyday, and I have a family, so there was definitely the fear of possible exposure. We had to scramble to buy all these cleaning supplies, and keeping this place sanitized was its own challenge. Every single day we were running through so much product, and it was just a challenge trying to keep up with that in addition to the changes that were made regarding the city and state restrictions.
- What do you love most about Brooklyn? I love everything about Brooklyn. I love the culture. I love the fact that you can see it is a melting pot of so many different things, not just race. The culture here is like no other. I’m from the Caribbean. I was born in Brooklyn, but I’m also from St. Lucia, so being in Brooklyn has been my life. I’ve seen Brooklyn grow and just become so different over the years, yet still be able to keep its culture, richness and vibe. I think that’s what I love most, the vibe.
- When I think about a lot of the wine and spirits stores in our communities, for many of them, I envision bulletproof glass from the floor to the ceiling. The first time I came to Happy Cork, the experience was very different from that. Was that something you were intentional about? That was extremely intentional. I live in the neighborhood. I’m from the neighborhood, and as you said, you go into certain liquor stores and it’s an unwelcome feeling. Not being able to touch the bottles, or ask certain questions sometimes, and then the selection is always “whatever we give you, that’s you’re going to have.” We wanted to make sure that whatever we created was something that was built for the community, and we are so grateful and thankful, because it has been just a blessing to give more goodness and richness to the community.
- Red, white or rosé? Rosé. With bubbles. [laughs]
- What does “Doing the right thing” mean to you personally? I like to think that here at Happy Cork, we do the right thing every day, whether that be community involvement, using our platform as a way to bring awareness to everything that is happening within the community, or right down to what we’re offering on the shelves. It’s about offering people the best quality, at the best prices, and being able to bring awareness to a lot of these Black-owned brands. A lot of people don’t even realize how many Black-owned brands exist until they come into the store, so to be honest with you, I think every day we’re doing the right thing.
Find Happy Cork using the EatOkra app. Download here.
