Opened on October 23, 2004, Cyrano Wine Selections is easily the most unconventional wine shop in town.

Shall we count the ways?

Take the unusual hours we keep. We try to open by 5:00 p.m. every day, though admittedly we have been known on occasion to (ahem!) open an hour or so late. In any case, we are quite happy to stay open until guests finally have the decency sense to figure out that the glare filtering through the windows is indeed sunlight.

Or consider that obsessive-compulsive wine manager who persists in running the place. Honestly, he and that lieutenant of his (a.k.a. VP/Sales & Marketing) have no idea what they are doing other than to keep alive one of the happiest places on this good green earth. Let’s just say that they run the ship as they see fit and our patrons are all the better for it.

But if we had to choose just one special thing about Cyrano, it has to be that, in all honesty, we don’t really have customers. We just have friends.

It’s these friends, after all, who insist that ours is much more than a wine shop. With a glass of wine in one hand and a plate of cheese in the other, they will proudly tell you that Cyrano is their “my space” place. Forget about home. This is their living room and pantry rolled into one, their own comfy little pad where they can kick up their feet on a couch and watch another episode of Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations, all the while happily badmouthing Rachael Ray and her insultingly clueless efforts to educate us about what good food is all about. Prefer to watch a concert? Pop in the “Boz Scaggs Greatest Hits Live” DVD and things are really cooking. And if you need more chilled wine, cheese or cold cuts, just open the fridge and help yourself.

Ah, the Cyrano lifestyle…

Of course, as with any living room, we have a few house rules that need to be remembered:

• We only sell wines that we like. If we don’t like it, we won’t carry it.
• We’re a “blue jeans” kind of place, so dress as comfortably as you please. With modesty, of course.
• Wine lovers are welcome. Wine snobs are not. If you’re the latter, leave your ego at the door… or else.
• We are a wine shop, NOT a restaurant. We offer a few snacks but we encourage you to B.Y.O.B. (Bring Your Own Baon) and to share with us. Mmm… smooth, creamy Stilton and stinky Époisses, duck confit, Serrano ham, assorted cold cuts… get the picture? And oh yeah, food delivery by phone is just as cool.
• We reserve the right to toss out malcontents. Drunks, however, may be welcomed in on a case to case basis.

So enjoy hanging out with us at Cyrano, good friends. As the legendary Mr. Pavia likes to say about us, “We have a good thing going here.”