Salt Water Liquors
New owner Trushali Patel and her husband Pavan officially took over ownership and are now Salt Water Liquors, the retail wine, beer and liquor establishment at the Atlantic Highlands Foodtown Shopping Center, formerly Vingo’s. The new owners are already are listening to customers to get their input before making any major changes in the popular liquor store.
For the Patels, Salt Water Liquors is really a family-owned business, dating back to Pop, Paven’s dad, who oversaw the family business at Pop’s Liquors, the store which they still operate in Neptune. The Patels operated Pop’s with Pavan’s brother and sister-in-law.
At Salt Water Liquors, while their own three sons are too young to be in the business, “they’re old enough to here to sweep, paint, and help us get it in the order we feel are necessary for our customers,” Patel laughed.
The Patels will maintain Salt Water Liquors with Pavan’s brother and sister-in-law, most likely still under the watchful eye of “Pop.” who remains a popular greeter at the Neptune store.
Pavan readily admits it is his wife who owns the business, and he is a software engineer manager in IT. But the family wanted a liquor store because “that’s what Pop had when we were growing up and that’s what got us to where we are today,” he smiled.
Keeping the customer happy and supplied with the specialties he wants seems to be the game plan for the new owners. “We aren’t making any major changes other than sprucing up the place and making it look cleaner and more attractive,” Pavan said. “After that, we are taking an inventory of stock, seeing what our customers want, providing what they need, and assuring them that if it’s something we don’t have, we will follow through with our suppliers and have it in a day or so.”
One of the major changes customers should see at Salt Water Liquors within several weeks will be a walk-in refrigeration unit along one wall so Salt Water can provide a variety of microbrews. “That seems to be what people want these days, and we love to support local businesses.” In addition to keeping the present microbreweries, including the locally brewed Carton’s, Salt Water has already added Brick City, and a couple of other local breweries as well as well-liked breweries from Vermont, New York and Philadelphia.
Both natives of India, the Patel’s are multi-lingual, and besides perfect English, Pavan is fluent in his native Gujarati as well as two other languages. The family came from India to Boston where he grew up, then moved to Sayreville where he lived for a while before he and Trushali and their sons settled in Monroe Township.
Salt Water Liquors is open seven days a week from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. There will always be at least one person ready and eager to greet you as you come in, answer any questions, and take every care to be certain you find what you are looking for, whether it be a suggestion or a particular bottle, brand, or price range.
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