Plant City is evolving.
It’s evident by the residents that are moving to the city and in the growing focus on revitalizing downtown. And it’s evident in the new businesses springing to life around the community. Less than two years ago, Brandon Snyder took a risk and opened a wine bar in historic downtown. Plant City had nothing like it and Snyder joked many in the community weren’t sure if there would even be a demand for such a unique venue.
Roots Tap Room & Wine Bar opened in Aug. 2019 and became a staple in much of the community’s routine within weeks. No longer did residents have to drive to Tampa or St. Petersburg to find a wine bar — a high-quality venue was now right in their back yard. Interest in events, themed programs and private parties flooded in and Snyder soon had to juggle a packed schedule.
Then the pandemic hit and everything changed.
“Whenever COVID started, I shut down for five weeks because I didn’t know what was going to happen,” Snyder said. “Then I opened for retail only. I was talking to my reps and watching as retail sales of wine were skyrocketing across the country. I noticed that the people coming in for retail were a different crowd than the bar crowds. I suddenly had an entire new base of customers and their interests and wants were different from those that had just wanted to come and have a glass of wine or a beer after work. Then once people were allowed to come back inside, with of course 10 people or less, we suddenly got a lot of requests to host private parties and that led to private wine tastings. Private events started gaining big popularity because it allowed friends or those who kind of were in a bubble with each other to come and enjoy a night out without having to worry about strangers in a crowded bar.”
Roots started booking up with private events and Snyder realized that even when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis allowed bars to reopen, the pandemic led to a new and ongoing demand: people want to be able to pick up unique wines to take home with them and they want to socialize in private, closed-off events.
Years ago, Snyder saw the need for a wine bar and chased the dream. Now he saw the need for a new experience: a wine cellar where people can pick up retail fine wines, craft beers, cigars and “doodads.”
Roots Tap Room & Wine Bar, 101 S. Evers St., is still open and operating like normal. Cellars is a new undertaking, an expansion of the brand Snyder has created in downtown Plant City.
Roots Cellars, 303 S. Collins St., has its soft opening from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. tomorrow and Saturday, and its grand opening will be at 4 p.m. Feb. 9 via a special ribbon cutting presented by the Greater Plant City Chamber of Commerce.
Typically if locals want to have a bottle of wine at home, they run to the supermarket, browse the one aisle of offerings and pick up one of the handful of brands they’re familiar with. There’s no sommelier lingering in the aisle to help them discover their new favorite bottle. Roots Cellars will bridge that gap for shoppers.
The atmosphere of the new venue is a nod to what Plant City will hopefully soon become: a trendy yet laid-back destination known for its high-quality products. Dim lights glow over the polished wood tables and shelves. Taxidermy hang from many of the walls — including a massive buffalo head when you walk in the door — and leather chairs add a sense of homey comfort to the venue. If you know what you’re looking for, great — head to the red wine room or the white wine room, grab what you want and check out. For everyone else, Snyder said he’ll be there — along with his pup Toka — ready to walk customers through the different offerings until they can find the perfect bottle for them.
He’s built a reputation on his ability to find the perfect wine or beer for each individual customer’s palate with a brief lineup of questions. If you sit at the bar at Roots on Evers Street, you’ll often hear regulars come in and ask him to pick something for them. His knowledge is vast and he always goes the extra mile to explain the differences between each item on his menu.
“There’s this belief that drinking and learning about wine is a complex thing,” Snyder said. “You know that picture that pops in your mind when you think of wine tastings is someone swirling wine around a glass with their pinky out. Well that’s not what we’re about here. We say ‘pinkies in, it’s just juice.’ We try to give people an experience they’ll enjoy and that they’ll remember. We hope that we can help them find things they may never have thought to try before that they’ll end up loving. You can walk through these doors and talk to us and ask questions and we are going to make sure we find something you love. And if you’re not sure, we’ll open the bottle and let you taste it right here so you can know exactly what you’re buying.”
Snyder said the goal is to hold private tastings on Fridays at Roots Cellars, which will offer more of a classroom vibe, and then people can walk over to Roots Tap Room & Wine Bar afterward to hang out and enjoy glasses of whatever wine and beers they enjoy most. There will be maps at both locations that show how to easily walk one street over to get to the other venue and you will get a discount for choosing to visit both.
Roots Cellars is open from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and then Snyder hopes to host private events there at night.
Snyder said the ultimate goal is to one day own five businesses in downtown with the hopes of opening each new one every two years. He’s had a solid team with him to bring Roots Cellars to life and said without the help of Tom Wing, with Purple Winery, Courtney Donovan, with Johnson Brothers, and his good friend Kevin Huston, he never would have been able to get Cellars ready to open so quickly.
Huston and Snyder are two of the 3 Buffalo, LLC, a group of three friends who hoped to spread their love of wine, craft beer and fine dining to the masses. Huston helped Snyder launch Roots Tap Room & Wine Bar and came back to bring Cellars to life as well. Huston came down from Manhattan to help Snyder while Huston’s restaurant was closed down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There’s a lot of great things about Plant City, but I think the one thing that always stands out to me is the people, they are just unbelievably kind and supportive here,” Huston said. “They take care of Brandon and seem to really want to continue to grow and improve their community. As of right now there’s really nothing that you can go to and experience the hospitality and the educational purposes about wine, and that’s where the Cellars will step up to the plate. We want there to be all kinds of restaurants and breweries and locations like this in the area because they all will support each other and make Plant City a destination. I think Brandon is helping to create that new wave in downtown and we’re really excited to see what’s going to follow.”
Snyder said Cellars is opening with a light inventory so the business can soon take on the life of the community. If customers request certain wines, Snyder will do some research and add them to the inventory. The goal is to make Roots Cellars a reflection of the community while also having new and exciting options for people to constantly try something different and expand their palates. On top of the alcohol, Roots Cellars will also feature small boutique options for women and “dude-tique” options for men who want to take merch home with them.
“This has been an exciting process for us, and really I just can’t wait for the community to come check it out and see what we’ve built,” Snyder said. “People have already popped in and seem to be just kind of blown away. We’re constantly changing, whether it’s the bar or the Cellars. We are doing things in Plant City that no one has done before and allowing our clientele to guide us. I think that’s why we’ve been successful so far. We are offering something new, but listen to our community and reflect what they want as well. It’s a partnership and it’s something I hope we can continue here.”