Navarra family opens liquor store in downtown Albion

By Tom Rivers, Editor Posted 16 October 2013 at 12:00 am

Photos by Tom Rivers – Vinny Navarra is pictured inside Main Street Liquor and Wine Discount Store with his daughter Maria Dysard, the business’s manager. The liquor store opened on Monday at 20 North Main St. in Albion.

ALBION – Vinny Navarra and his family have opened a wine and liquor store at 20 North Main St., in a building where Navarra also runs a gym and has space for more tenants.

Main Street Liquor and Wine Discount Store opened on Monday. Navarra’s daughter Maria Dysard is the store manager.

“I like to support the community,” Navarra said at the site today. “We like the people in the village and the county. That’s why we opened the businesses.”

The new store is stocked with local wines – Leonard Oakes Estate Winery in Medina and Schwenk Wine Cellars in Kent – as well as other wines from New York and the United States. Other liquor products are also available.

Navarra has wanted to open a liquor store in the building for many years, including back when he ran Navarra’s Family Restaurant at the site. Back then he didn’t have the space. When he closed the restaurant, the space was quickly used up by Moss Codilis and Claims Recovery Financial Services. They then outgrew the space. CRFS is planning to move 750 employees into the former Chase site in Albion.

Navarra has been upgrading the building, installing an elevator to make 6,000 square feet of space attractive for a business in the upstairs.

Vinny Navarra brought his father’s old wine press into the liquor store. Giuseppe Navarra moved his family from Italy to Albion in 1966.

He and his family opened the Albion Fitness Center two years ago in the building. His daughter also has a business, Second Chances, in one of the suites. She restores primitive furniture and repaints it in that business. Some of her work is on display in the liqur store.

Now Dysard is also managing the liquor store that is open every day except Sunday.

“I didn’t want to see this sit empty,” Navarra said about the space. “And I always wanted to own a liquor store.”

Navarra bought the building in 1990 back when it was a vacant and rundown movie theater. He tried to renovate the building, but he said it was too far gone. He took it down and put up a modern building in 1992. He ran a restaurant in the space for about 18 years.

Navarra said the businesses have all been family projects. The new liquor store includes a wine press that was owned by his father, Giuseppe Navarra, who moved the family from Italy to Albion in 1966.

Navarra has opened the third new liquor store in Orleans County in the past four months. Julie Zimmerman opened Sixes and Sevens Spirits in June in Lyndonville.

Last month, Howard and Clara Lake opened Lakes Wines-N-Spirits on Park Avenue in Medina.