From Dave Brigham:
I stumbled across Berman's Fine Wines & Spirits while in the midst of a tour of Arlington, Mass. I didn't realize it at the time, but I'd crossed into neighboring Lexington, and discovered a business founded in the horse-and-buggy era.
The company founder, whose name isn't given on the store's web site, started the business in 1909. He "drove a horse drawn wagon up and down [M]assachusetts [A]venue, selling meat door to door," per the web site. "[T]he wagon eventually became a storefront, a full grocery/dry goods business and, after prohibition, a licensed liquor store," the web site continues. "[T]he town fathers came to my grandfather and offered him the first available liquor license in town due to his kind consideration of, and generosity to, those who didn't have enough money to pay him during the depression," current owner Joel Berman says on the web site. He is the third generation of the family to run the store; his son, Gregg, also works for the company.
The store has been at this loation since 1959, I believe. I was struck, as you might imagine, by the streamlined neon sign on the roof. I don't see many signs like that in my travels around Greater Boston. With "DRIVE IN" and "LIQUOR MART" flanking the name of the store, it looks like something you'd see on Route 1 north of Boston, or along famed Route 66.
Make sure to check back for my write-up of Arlington Heights, the neighborhood I thought I was in, in the near future.
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