Bob and Kristen Kowalski will be spending Valentine's Day together, but they won't be celebrating it until later. After all, duty calls.
"We'll ride together" to and from their store, the Wine Market by Kowalski's in Mendota Heights, Kristen said, "and be together from 9 a.m. till 10 p.m. We'll celebrate Sunday."
That's one of the pitfalls for couples who work together in wine retail, especially when St. V's falls on their busiest day of the week. The romance sometimes has to wait, but the Kowalskis and two other local couples agree that their vocation is pretty darn romantic, making it easier to spend so much time together.
But the real keys are -- surprise! -- complementary skills (complimentary ones don't hurt, either), with strong doses of friendship, mutual respect and division of labor. How three couples have made it work:
Paul and Trina Wentzel, the Wine Thief. "It's nice having separate tasks, as it helps us each to concentrate on fewer things," said Paul. He works fulltime at the St. Paul store, while Trina, a teacher at Mounds Park Academy, writes the "shelf talkers" for each wine, buys the accessories and "makes me clean," said Paul.
"Paul is great at being the face of the store," said Trina. "He loves the [distributor] reps, customers, and his overall job."
It also helps, she added, that "we have different palates. While we each appreciate good wines in general, we naturally tend toward different-styled wines, which makes us great partners in purchasing bottles for the store."
David and Gretchen Anderson, France 44. They worked together for 15 years before Gretchen recently returned to real estate. They're still a familiar sight at tastings, where Gretchen takes "copious, well-written tasting notes," said David, vice president of the Minneapolis store. "She is probably a better taster than me.
