Lucas Confectionery Wine Bar Wins Small Business Award
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Minor League Baseball® and its partners announced today that Lucas Confectionery wine bar, located in Troy, New York, has been named the small business of the year. Lucas Confectionery was chosen from more than 250 small businesses from across the country in a contest that ran from Sept. 24 - Oct. 16, 2015. Co-owners Heather LaVine and Vic Christopher will accept the award on behalf of Lucas Confectionery at the Baseball Winter Meetings on Monday, Dec. 7, at the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Nashville, Tennessee.
Founded in 2012 by husband and wife duo Vic Christopher and Heather LaVine, the wine bar celebrated its three-year anniversary earlier this week. Located at 12 2nd Street, Lucas Confectionery features fine wines, craft beer, artisanal coffee, desserts and small plates. The inspiration for the small business came to the couple when they visited a wine bar in Brooklyn.
After opening its doors, the business expanded quickly, adding a garden with a retractable roof, a grocery store and a fine dining restaurant in 2013. In total, Christopher and LaVine have purchased and renovated four long-vacant buildings in the small upstate New York city. The New York Times and New York Daily News have both included Lucas Confectionery among the catalysts for the renewed interest in Troy, New York.
"Troy is a city where you can still afford to achieve the American Dream," added Christopher. "It is known as 'The Hometown of Uncle Sam,' but to me, it is a small business American city because so many small businesses --old and new-- are thriving here."
Today, Christopher and LaVine opened a new wine shop in another long-vacant building at 22 Second Street - the third long-vacant building they have purchased and refurbished in the city's Monument Square neighborhood. For more information about Lucas Confectionery, the OnDeck Small Business of the Year, visit LucasConfectionery.com.