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New Staten Island Store to Mix Painting Lessons With Wine

By Nicholas Rizzi | October 9, 2013 9:58am
 Pinot's Palette, a chain of stores that offers boozy painting lessons, will open their first location in New York on Staten Island next month.
Pinot's Palette
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TOTTENVILLE — A new store opening on Staten Island will let residents channel their inner Van Gogh while knocking back glasses of wine.

Pinot's Palette, a chain of stores that gives boozy painting lessons from local artists, is set to open its first location in New York on Staten Island next month.

"We're bringing fine art to the masses in a fun way," said Dorothy Friedman, marketing director for the Staten Island location. "It's a real fun, party atmosphere and people will take home their paintings that night."

The place will have a wine and beer bar and classes will range from landscapes and seascapes to reproductions of Van Gogh pieces aimed at all levels of painters, Friedman said.

The owners have applied for a liquor license and expect to open as soon as that's granted.

"You don't have to have any artistic background whatsoever," said Friedman. "People come up to us and say 'I can't draw, I can't paint,' and we had our artists sit with them and have them create something."

While owners Fred Fadell and Rich Barton considered bringing Pinot's Palette to Manhattan or Brooklyn, they decided to stick with their home borough. The chain already has branches in New Jersey and Connecticut.

They leased space at 20 Ellis St. in Tottenville.

"Often to do something fun there's got to be a bridge involved," Friedman said. "We wanted to bring something new and cool to Staten Island where people can hop in the car and go into something local."

The store originally was going to be a BYOB place, but when they found out they would still need a liquor license from the city they decided to put a bar in instead and avoid future problems, as recently experienced by the Painting Lounge in Brooklyn.

"We thought about doing BYO, it's so much simpler," Friedman said. "Then we found out we needed a liquor license anyway, so we figured we might as well sell it."

Aside from open classes, the building will also have an upstairs room for private parties and events for kids without alcohol, Friedman said.

They're currently waiting on buildings permits and their liquor license, then they will start decorating and planning a schedule of classes. They aim for a late November grand opening, Friedman said.