For nearly 40 years, Paul DeRuzzo has owned and run the University Wine Shop in Porter Square, taking over from the man who founded the shop in the 1950s – and at the time of the sale was in his late 80s.
“I told myself I wasn’t going to be that old when I cashed out,” DeRuzzo said.
At the end of the month, DeRuzzo will sell the wine shop to a group that runs several liquor and convenience stores in Boston as well as the Surrey Street Market just outside Harvard Square.
University Wine has been a go-to for an affordable bottle – its $10 bin has been a fixture in the store, though it’s edging up to $15 – and impromptu hangout spot for students and neighbors.
“His store was a gathering place for people of all persuasions and opinions,” said longtime resident, former Patriots general manager and sports talk show host Upton Bell. “Sports, politics and arts were often discussed. I went there for more than wine.”
DeRuzzo grew up in Concord and went to college at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. After graduation he planned to go to business school, but when the Bedford liquor store he and his friend worked at came up for sale, they bought it. Four years later, they bought University Wine from Henry Fine, who had moved the store to Porter Square after several years in Harvard Square. Not long after, DeRuzzo bought out his two partners. In 2017, a rent increase forced him to move the shop to 1737 Massachusetts Ave. from from 1739 Massachusetts Ave., now a bank branch. DeRuzzo said the move nearly undid him financially.
His reasons for getting out – besides that it “was time,” as DeRuzzo said: “It’s just tough now to be in business around here. The neighborhood’s changing.” A sense of community is being lost as the corridor builds up, he said, and as younger generations drink less.
He’s seen children grow up to buy their first bottle of wine from him. Some, DeRuzzo said, even came to work for him. He doesn’t know what will happen to his staff under new management, including two employees who have been with him for nearly the entirety of his ownership. Several employees planned to move on but hoped for another year or two, which was in DeRuzzo’s plan until the right offer came in.
“It can also be hard physical work,” he notes of lifting and stocking. The steep stairs to the inventory in the basement of the shop can be a strain as well, though DeRuzzo is wildly fit for a person in his 60s – he runs marathons and bikes like a much younger athlete.
DeRuzzo kept the shop open during the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013, through 2015’s record-breaking “snowmageddon” and through Covid, which he said helped the store’s bottom line and community engagement. During the 2015 snow lockdown, DeRuzzo said he put an employee up in the Mary Prentiss Inn to keep the lights on – reminiscent of when Fine kept the store open until the shelves were bare during the notorious 1978 blizzard.
“Paul is a dear friend who also runs a great wine and spirits store loved by everybody in our neighborhood,” said Deb Colburn, owner of the nearby gift shop Nomad and former sublessee of DeRuzzo’s at the 1739 Massachusetts Ave. locale. “He’s also generous and gives so much, not just in terms of selling great wines, but also as a helping hand and friend to many neighbors.”
For DeRuzzo, what’s next is to just step back and breathe a bit. He lives in his family home in Concord with his mom, now in her 90s, but the ultimate goal is to go south, where he said he wants to spend more time with wildlife and nature. There are some loosely planned farewell events, which will be bittersweet.
What he created cannot be copied, his neighbors and customers said. “There was joy and laughter,” Bell said. “It’s the end of an era.”
A stronger
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My favorite memory was the cat in the old location. Its bed was a wooden wine box in the window.
Oh no, terrible news! I’ve loved this store and the people who run it and work in it for decades, from the Time of the Big Gray Cat, to Dominic arranging deliveries of my favorite beer when I was sick during Covid lockdown, to counting on it as the place to get my copies of Cambridge Day! I fervently hope the employees will stay on…and the name?
Paul thank you for the oasis. It’s been a wonderful run.
Speaking on behalf of my dog Winston…he’s going to miss the kind staff at the store and the free treats they give him!