
Julie and Rick Lombardi stand in front of the wine selection at The Vin Bin’s Marlborough location. (Photo/Evan Walsh)
REGION – In 2004, Rick Lombardi sat at his desk in Boston dreaming of wine and cheese.
He’d grown up working in the “vin” – “wine,” in French – section of his local supermarket and became interested in the beverage. But years later, in his mid-40s and working as Head of Communication for the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department, Lombardi’s fascination with wine seemed to be just a hobby.
That is until one day when Lombardi decided to leave his “cushy job” – sacrificing his pension and, yes, the free parking – to “do something different” and open his own wine and cheese shop. His friends and family were shocked, but the allure of the “vin” and “fromage” was too much to pass up.
Today, in 2024, Lombardi and his wife, Julie, are proud owners of The Vin Bin, which has its flagship location in a historic building in downtown Marlborough. Though the business started boldly, it’s proven to stand the test of time: This year, The Vin Bin is celebrating its 20-year anniversary.
“I thought I was just daydreaming. Until I actually did it,” said Lombardi.
What’s ‘in’ at the ‘Vin’?
The Vin Bin boasts a selection of over 800 labels of wine across its three stores, though each “vin” is constantly evaluated and the store’s inventory often changes. Unlike other stores which may blindly order the same labels annually, The Vin Bin tests each wine before it’s shipped: The store’s knowledgeable staff understands that just because a vintage 2019 wine was excellent, it doesn’t necessarily mean its 2020 counterpart is up to the store’s standard. This way, The Vin Bin carries only the best product.
“There’s no good price for bad wine,” said Lombardi. “Even if the price is attractive, we will not bring it in here if it’s lousy. You can buy those wines anywhere else – but not here. General Manager Aaron Aykanian and I taste every single bottle of wine before it gets here. We know exactly what we buy, we know how it tastes. We live by the quality-to-price ratio: Whatever is in the bottle, it has to be well-worth the price.”
Lombardi – who went to both wine and cheese school after leaving his office job – also manages the store’s cheese selection, which faces the same scrutiny as the “vin” section; every cheese is tasted beforehand to ensure quality. Lombardi heads to food shows twice a year to see what they might stock.
Feeding and funding community
The Vin Bin’s excellence extends far beyond the realm of cheese and wine. When moving to the company’s current location in Marlborough in 2011, there was more space than expected. Luckily for Lombardi, his son, Mike, and daughter-in-law, Hanna, had the perfect idea. As professional chefs who worked at some of the nation’s most high-end establishments, Chef Mike and Chef Hanna used their culinary expertise to start The Vin Bin’s cafe, which cooks up gourmet sandwiches and soups daily.
“Mike and Hanna have some real culinary firepower, so a lot of the sandwiches are quite different from what you would see at a Jersey Mike’s. People really like them. They love them. We were voted best sandwich in MetroWest for five years in a row – that’s pretty good,” said Lombardi.
“We want to make the store inviting, and we want people to come here and hang out for a while,” he continued. “They can sit at the tables, they can poke around and browse. We don’t rush people, we don’t bother people. We answer questions, and we’re knowledgeable about everything we have here,” he said.
At its heart, The Vin Bin is a family- and community-focused business. Christina Amato, Lombardi’s daughter, runs the back-end operations to keep the company going, while Julie focuses on the company’s gift-basket operation. The Vin Bin hosts community events almost weekly, and makes an effort to give back to the community – especially Marlborough, where Lombardi got his start – whenever it can.
“Our mission is to be interactive with the community every step of the way. We just donated a room to the Marlborough Public Library … You need to live in a community that has a great library, right? We try to give as much as we can every week. It’s part of our mission – I think the community deserves it,” he said.
20-year anniversary
On Sep. 14, The Vin Bin will officially celebrate its 20-year anniversary, and is inviting the community to a “grand tasting” to mark the occasion. There will be free in-store samples of wine and cafe food, and 20% off (three bottles or more) of wine. Proceeds from the event benefit the Marlborough Public Library.
The event will be one to remember, but Lombardi isn’t using the 20-year mark as an excuse to slow down.
“Every day I wake up and I say, ‘What am I going to do to get customers today?’ That’s what I do every day. As far as whether we’re successful or not, when we’re retired, then we’ll look back. Right now, every day it’s a pleasure to come to work,” he told the Community Advocate. “We have been blessed with some pretty awesome and creative staff. Without the staff’s dedication and commitment to the highest standards, we would have never made it out of 2004. Besides our fantastic customers, we give thanks every single day to our crew in each of the three stores.”
The Vin Bin has three locations in the local area, including 91 Main St. in Marlborough, 154 Turnpike Rd. in Southborough, and a store-only location at 22 South St. in Hopkinton. For more information on the company, visit https://thevinbin.com/ or call (508) 480-9463.
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