Josh Hammond – Memphis Flyer

Buster’s Liquors will open its second location February 1st at 5851 Poplar Avenue in the Ridgeway Trace Shopping Center.

Their location at 191 South Highland Street will now be known as “Buster’s Liquors University.” The new store will be known as “Buster’s Liquors East.”

The new store is 18,000 square feet as opposed to 16,000 square feet at their Highland store, says Josh Hammond, one of the owners of the Buster’s stores along with his brother, Morgan Hammond, and their mother, Gay Hammond.

The location of the new space, which once housed a Staples store, has three times the amount of car traffic, Josh says.

“From, basically, the Clark Tower on down to Kirby, is a huge retail corridor. We feel like we’re finally over here in this major retail core of the city.”

The new location will feature a “tasting kiosk” — a “four-sided tasting area where we can host events,” Josh says.

Buster’s Liquors East also will include “a walk-in cigar humidor and a walk-in climate-control room for fine wine. And then we’ll have two conference rooms where we can conduct private and intimate tastings.”

According to a release, Buster’s Liquors was founded by R. M. “Buster” Hammond Jr. in 1954 on South Bellevue. “In 1968, Buster and his son, Rommy, moved the store to the corner of Poplar and Highland,” the release states. “And they finally reached their current location in 1970 with the completion of a new adjacent retail center, Dillard Square, that’s since been renamed ‘The University Center.’”

As for opening a new store at this time, Josh says, “The timing was just right. Everything seemed to come together.”

And, he adds, “This part of town is definitely in need of a larger retail wine and spirits shop that can literally carry everything. So, the industry is trending that way to larger stores. I think everything just came together quite nicely for us to get this place.

“A lot of our dear customers and friends have moved further out east,” he says, “and just don’t venture back in town as much as they used to. So, it will be nice to come out to East Memphis and see our old customers again.”

They gave their store on Highland a facelift almost 10 years ago. “We renovated the store entirely in 2015 on Highland.”

Last August, they opened Buster’s Butcher next to the Highland location. According to the release, Buster’s Butcher is “a full-service meat and cheese butcher shop” that “features professionally skilled butchers and stocks a curated assortment of meats, beef, pork, and international cheeses along with a number of made-in-house sausages, prepared sides, spices, and more.”

For now, the new location will be a “specialty liquor store,” Josh says. As for putting in a butcher shop at the new location, he says, “There is a space next to it. The landlord knows we’re interested. But first things first. We have to make sure these two new ventures — Buster’s Butcher and the new Buster’s East — are ‘ginning.’”

Grinder Taber Grinder was the contractor on the new location. Designshop was the architect and interior designer. Old City Millwork did the millwork. DataComm Services Corporation and Pomeroy IT Solutions Inc. handled all the computer and network needs.

“As far as colors and finishes, I would say a lot of what you see at the butcher shop is a little bit of what you’ll see at the new store.”

Would the Hammond family consider opening more locations down the road? “I’ll never say never. First of all, it’s taken us 70 years to get here.”

Asked how he felt about his family opening another location, Josh says, “My dad and my grandfather, all the effort they put into establishing a brand name for themselves in this city, and the legacy my brother and I get to carry on is a tremendous honor.”

He and his family have the opportunity to “serve the Memphis area” and “do it with a friendly nature and provide great customer value with our selection, pricing, and expertise. And it allows us to give back, which is also important to do in our family.

“We know the old adage: ‘The first generation creates it, the second generation grows it, and the third generation destroys it.’ We’re the third generation and we’re growing it. So, I think we’re doing something right.”

“And we’re welcoming our fourth generation with my nephew, Morgan’s son, Bear Hammond, who is coming into the business.”

They currently are in the process of hiring about 25 employees to work at either location, Josh says.

There’s an old saying, “What rhymes with Friday? Vodka.” And, folks, there’s a new sheriff in town. Or right outside of town. In Oxford.

Artist Vodka, made by Old Venice restaurateur and Oxford resident Jim Bulian, hit the shelves a year ago and is doing its darndest to make sure that old saying rings true.

Its slogan is “The art is in the party,” and it’s making the rounds to parties across the continent with its business plan to pair up with artists and act as their vodka-in-residence.

“We promote their work, and they promote our product,” Bulian, also an artist, says.

So far, the wheat-based vodka label has paired up with close to a half dozen artists, including painter Jeremy Lipking, novelist Ace Atkins, and jazz musician Ray Angry, and is looking to add more to the Artist Vodka Collective.

“We do pourings and tastings. We just did one at an art gallery in Culver City for Susan Carter Hall,” Bulian says.

Bulian also makes his product available to film producers for product placement purposes, an idea that sparked from a run-in with Alison Eastwood, i.e. Clint Eastwood’s daughter.

“I bumped into her at a dinner party. Our vodka is organic, and she loves anything organic, so I gave her a taste, and she asked if I would like to do a product placement in her film,” Bulian says.

Speaking of organic, the Italian farro wheat that Bulian imports from Europe is USDA certified organic. He uses water from Lake Stevens in the Cascade mountain range in Washington and the old world Russian distillation method in a copper kettle.

“Lake Stevens gets 200 inches of rainfall a year and 200 inches of snowfall, so the water is fresh and perfectly pH balanced, and you get this really clean and soft taste,” Bulian says. “We have yet to lose a taste test, and we’ve gone up against them all. We are 22 and 0.”

So far Artist Vodka can be found in 45 restaurants, bars, and stores in Memphis, including Old Venice, of course, Cafe Pontotoc, Bardog, and Spirit Shop.

The website is still in launch-mode but eventually will host its Artist Collective, with bios and links for each artist it represents.

“I went through 75 different profiles to try to get it right. It’s beautiful inside, and it’s beautiful outside,” Bulian says.

Buster’s Liquors & Wines is thinking about changing its name. Again.

As the liquor laws or the drinking culture in the state of Tennessee slowly catch up with the rest of the country, or at least the less absurd areas, the 60-plus-year-old retail institution continues to evolve, and so does its name.

First it added the “& Wines” part as wine became more en vogue in the ’80s and ’90s. Next up is either adding a comma, moving the ampersand, and adding “Beer,” or a similar configuration but with the word “More.”

That’s because Buster’s definitely has beer now, and it has lots of more.

The store recently added 6,000 square feet to its existing 10,000, paying particular attention to making sure the beer nerds (cerevisaphiles?) of the Mid-South are properly slaked.

They now carry more than 500 beers stocked behind 14 cooler doors, and they launched Memphis’ only Pegas growler system, which uses a pressurized environment and CO2, pumping out oxygen to keep the growler fresh for several weeks.

“It’s a state-of-the-art system,” Buster’s president and co-owner, Josh Hammond, says. “Used to you would have to drink it in a few days. Now it can stay fresh for two months until you decide to open it.”

They plan on rotating their eight taps regularly, concentrating on local brews, one-offs, and insider-knowledge beers made outside the state.

Because the Wine in Grocery Stores law, or WIGS, works both ways, Buster’s also added edibles to their well-stocked shelves.

They offer Boar’s Head sausages and packaged sliced meats, the Good Ham Company hams, 50-plus varieties of specialty cheeses, olive oils, Felicia Willett’s Flo’s products, Judy Pound Cakes, Shotwell candies, Papi Joe’s Bloody Mary mix, plus a nice selection of accessories, from stemware to gift bags.

The expansion also gave the store room to spread out a little, with wider aisles, a more roomy register, and the space for tasting desks, where they plan to hold weekend tastings on a regular basis.

“Our grand opening [in early December] was awesome. I would be waiting on a customer, showing them all the new stuff, and they would be sampling something, then I would look up a couple of hours later, and they were still there,” Hammond says. “That’s the kind of experience we want to give.

“That’s where the industry’s headed, and we’re definitely raising the bar.”