We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Nick Cheatham a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Nick, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. Parents play a huge role in our development as youngsters and sometimes that impact follows us into adulthood and into our lives and careers. Looking back, what’s something you think you parents did right?

Both of my parents are business owners, as were both of my grandfathers. They set an example for me by consistently showing up, making sacrifices, and working hard pursuing their dreams to ensure the success and vitality of their businesses so that they could support their family. In regard specifically to my parents, they created space for me to be creative and fostered an incredible amount of support, both financially and emotionally by encouraging me to take certain risks. Whenever I have a business idea, I go to my dad and mom and they share their feedback and offer other great suggestions. My greatest business advisor is my dad. He and I speak the same language and he always has creative suggestions to my business ideas. My parents have always given me space to make mistakes, too. I think this kind of support is incredibly invaluable when it comes to inspiring confidence to take risks and pursue entrepreneurial ventures. When I had the idea for Corazón, it wasn’t, “I’m not sure you can do that.” It was always, “Do it. We will help you.”

Nick, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My background is winemaking and viticulture. I began my journey with my first “real job” on the bottling line at A to Z Wineworks in the Willamette Valley, Oregon back in 2014. I was determined to take any opportunity that I came across and run with it after being turned away from all prospects to work at a brewery due to high demand. I took that fall term off from Oregon State University to work the wine harvest and fell in love with it all. It was hard labor and long hours, but the people – all incredibly intelligent, hardworking, and fascinated with food & wine – made me so curious about the world of wine. I got to meet and work with people from all over the world and it broadened my perspective, a big change for a small town kid from rural Eastern Oregon. I later graduated from OSU with a degree in Fermentation Science and went on to work at several other wineries in the Willamette Valley, Idaho, and one in New Zealand. But my vision began to shift as got a bit more work experience in marketing and social media under my belt and I began to burn out on wine production. I began to recognize that I was pretty good at marketing and really enjoyed it. However, my vision for Corazón came to me one winter while I was working in a vineyard pruning grapevines for hours upon hours in the cold Oregon rain.

I knew I wanted to be in Corvallis. I loved the community, the downtown, and the access to all the forest trails and recreation. I also felt like it would be the perfect spot for a wine bar. A brewery-loving college town in the middle of a world-class wine region with a population of wine drinkers who were incredibly underserved. So, I refined my original idea and then decided to niche down on a passion of mine- Mexican wine. The fit was natural to me as it allowed me to learn more about this wine region and also connect more with my background as a half Mexican.

Corazón began as a humble wine bar with simple food offerings, specialty wine bottles, and wine by the glass. Now, after a year and a half of operation, we’ve grown to offer a wine club that features only Mexican, Spanish, and Oregon wines with nearly 100 members – and growing. We also now have full entrees and a food program under the direction of a remarkable and creative chef, Luke Carlson, and we just launched specialty mezcal and tequila cocktails. More than all of this, though, Corazón is an experience. One of the greatest compliments we consistently receive from our guests when they visit us is, “I don’t feel like I’m in Corvallis anymore.” The plants, the vibe, the Spanish colonial architecture, the use of natural elements, the Mexican decor, the artwork, and of course, our striking illuminated wall of wine. Corazón is an extension of me and my family but it’s also relatable and comfortable and familiar. I designed it specifically to not be intimidating. My goal now is to expand the wine club and continue to educate on some really amazing wines from Mexico. I have also launched my own wine label, “Sangre del Corazón,” and I’m currently working on finding a second location. Stay tuned….

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

Yeah, I mean we did really well our first year of operation and kept our operating expenses slim and actually made money. And, from everyone I’ve talked to, 2023 was unusually good. Then 2024 took a bit of a turn and became more challenging. The first half of our second year in business we were losing money. I had gotten too comfortable, made a mistake to reduce hours of operation, and needed to re-strategize offerings. So, I doubled down and reinvested in additional seating, changed our point of sale, started collecting more emails for our marketing, reworked our food menu to add more entrees, acquired our license to serve spirits, reworked the SEO for our website, hit social media marketing hard, and began to expand the wine club. I don’t think I’ve had a full day off since January. But that’s, what I’ve come to learn, is what it takes to grow and operate a business. Nobody is coming to save you, and I’m grateful I was able to do so well in that first year to have a little bit of cash to invest. I basically have not really paid myself this year either. I had to make more sacrifices to ensure the business remained healthy, while not sacrificing my own health and well-being. In addition to this, I developed a personal fitness routine. I think that part was as important as everything else.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

The Corazón Wine Club has been our greatest strategy for the business. Diversifying on avenues of revenue that already tie-in with what we’re already doing has kept us afloat and at the time when I needed it the most, I was able to partner with Table22 to help us grow that wine club and streamline the service. I think there’s still a lot of room in the subscription avenue and I’m able to do what I’m best at, marketing and branding, while offering something people are continually looking for – wine that they can trust to be good and a story they can be a part of.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://corazoncorvallis.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/corazon.corvallis/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/CorvallisCorazon/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/95049253/admin/dashboard/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/corazón-corvallis

Image Credits

Avery Hadley