Marcello’s Wine Warehouse set to close, new shop will open

Marcello’s Wine Warehouse is closing, but owner Gene Todaro isn’t wine-ing about the sale of his Perkins Road property. He sold it once before, and he says he’ll be back in the retail business next year. “I have the wine bar down the street,” he says of Enoteca Marcello’s Wine Bar at the Southdowns Village shopping center. “I’m going to concentrate more of my time there.” Todaro says he plans to open a boutique-style wine shop closer to the successful bar and restaurant, which debuted in April. As for the warehouse, he says he opened it around 2000 and sold it to a New Orleans transplant after Hurricane Katrina, buying it back when the new owner decided to return home roughly two years ago. Todaro plans to liquidate his warehouse holdings and be out by the end of the year. Todaro sold the Marcello’s Wine Warehouse property in October to a group headed by local commercial Realtor Chad Ortte.—Todd R. Brown