We recently connected with Elijah Ostrow and have shared our conversation below.

Elijah , looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Do you take vacations? Why or why not?

I do! My general Manager Sarah is fantastic and fully able to keep things running smoothly while I’m away. Taking vacations both gives me time to recharge but also forces me to crate high quality systems that still function when I step away.

My advice to other founders who feel like they can’t get away is to view it as a stress test for your business. The first time to step away so many things will break. When you get back to town that’s your list of things to fix, and each vacation gets easier and easier.

My vacations are the reason so many of our process documents exist, they’re the reason I do management trainings for my team. I don’t know that I would have made those highly beneficial resources if I wasn’t scared to death to take time away!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

U Wine bar is my first solo-venture after an 8 year career working in fast growth startups in New York. I wanted to bring my passion for tabletop gaming, and wine to my home neighborhood of Wallingford, in Seattle.

I’ve been a gamer as long as I can remember, learning to read by playing trading card games and competing in my first tournament at 7. After working a summer job at a local game store in Seattle I attended undergrad at Cal Poly SLO and completed my MS in accounting at NYU. I spent the rest of my mid-20’s playing in Magic the Gathering Grand Prix up and down the eastern seaboard but somewhere along the way I lost my passion for the game. I left the competitive scene at 26 but would still occasionally play pickup games with my friends at one of our homes.

It was during one of these pickup games where everyone had travelled over an hour to Forest Hills despite having the option of many centrally located game stores in New York,

This sparked the initial question:

“Why do we choose to play at home rather than go to the local game stores?”

Over the next 2 years I kept asking this question to every player I met. Here is the compiled list of reasons:

I Want to but….
1. The Space is cramped and difficult for larger bodies to move through comfortably.
2. The food and beverages are low quality and I’d rather go to a nicer bar even if it doesn’t have games.
3. The people were too competitive and lacked personal hygiene, I didn’t feel welcome.
4. The professionalism is lacking, the events always start late, and the website isn’t user friendly. When I ask for recommendations the staff don’t know how to play any of the games.
5. I am often the only woman and it feels like a boys club.

I kept looking for a space that would meet these needs of the community but it simply didn’t exist. U Wine Bar is my response to the voices of the community asking for, and imagining a better alternative.

At U Wine Bar we don’t just serve drinks and sell games. We curate. Each selection is carefully sourced with a focus on quality and the relentless pursuit of excellence.

From our knowledgeable staff, to our elite product selection we are committed to doing the work for you.

For individuals who love tabletop gaming and are unwilling to compromise on experience. We’ve ditched the plastic chairs and windowless basement for a sleek modern wine bar. Here client comfort and experience is central.

Rather than stock every title or an exhaustive list of wines, we did the work for you. We’ve painstakingly tested, refined, and sourced the best games and wines for our space.

The result?

A one of a kind community experience for the modern nerd.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

So when I was first sourcing the space for U Wine Bar I had my heart set on the ORI building on Stone Way. Spoiler: we got it. But what most people don’t know is that the landlords rejected us from the property 5 times, I couldn’t get a business loan and no one wanted to insure us.

I went through hundreds of applications and the feedback I kept getting was that I had no experience in wine or retail and no assets to seize if a loan goes belly up. Call it resilience or delusional self confidence but in my head I was like “well that’s only 2 things”.

The truth is that no one wants to be the first person to say yes, but everyone is excited to be the last person to jump on a project. So I just acted like everyone else was already on board in every conversation. Do you have a loan? Yes. Do you have insurance? Yes. Do you have a Lease? Yes. A General contractor? Yes. A team? Yes.

I had none of it but when the Landlord thought I had a loan, a contractor, a broker and a full staff they said yes. And then suddenly I did have a lease and the rest fell into place.

It’s a different conversation when you’re inviting people to be on an elite team instead of being the first to believe.

How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?

We actually had to rebrand 3 months in to being open. Our initial branding was “an upscale board game wine bar”. Compared to other board game bars we are upscale but we were finding that customers were not coming in if they weren’t dressed up, and weren’t sure if our space was for them.

What was initially meant to highlight our strengths ended up being exclusionary in tone. So we packed that up and rebranded as a “vibrant welcoming community space” and I’m proud to say that we are.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Www.uwinebar.com
• Instagram: @uwinebar
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/elijahostrow

Image Credits

Miyahrphotography