Nostalgic SLO County bottle shop opens with 4 wineries — and food on the way

An authentic bottle shop is coming to San Luis Obispo County, with two restaurants, four local wineries and one brewery nestled inside.

Paso Bottle Shop had its soft opening March 21 at 1002 Railroad St. in Paso Robles with wineries mid•point and Rockbound Cellars, with another winery and two restaurants on its way.

After purchasing the more than 50-year-old business in 2020, Bill and Julie Lapp rebranded Rotta Winery to mid•point in 2022.

At the same time, the idea for the bottle shop formed as the couple progressed in their wine journey, they said.

“Mid•point means we’re in the middle of our journey, and we don’t have all the answers, and we’re trying to learn,” Bill Lapp told The Tribune. “It’s the opposite of wine country — why are you sitting down and trying to go formal? Wine should be fun, and that’s really what we’re trying to do here.”

The Paso Bottle Shop is part of the city’s construction project to transform Railroad Street to a Railroad District as an arts hub of murals, galleries and wineries.

The Lapps purchased the building in June of 2020, replacing Lush Limousine Services, and started construction with Paul Shannon of Pacifica Commercial Realty in November 2022.

“I didn’t even know any of this,” Lapp said. “When we bought the building, we didn’t even know what we’re going to do with it. One thing led to another, and next thing we’re like, let’s do an open air market.”

This won’t be the Lapp family’s first bottle shop.

Julie Lapp’s grandfather and her extended family have owned neighborhood liquor stores in San Francisco for over 80 years. The Paso Bottle Shop is a namesake to their family business, and a floor-to-ceiling mural of the family and their history takes up an entire hallway of the shop.

“Third generation, we carry it forward, beers and exceptional beverages, cuisine and spirit of neighborhood hospitality,” Lapp said.

New bottle shop includes wineries, new restaurants

The bottle shop includes four wineries: mid•point, Rockbound Cellars, Nenow Family Wines and Hayseed and Housdon, which is across the shop’s parking lot, but still a part of the family, Lapp said.

Goshi is joining the bottle shop later this year, as is Staviary, a new Eastern-European fusion restaurant run by power couple Rachel and Eric Ponce. Rachel crafts dishes that pair with Eric’s beers from brewery Cellar Fermentation.

“I’ve never cooked the same dish twice, because every wine or beer is so different,” Rachel Ponce told The Tribune. “It also gives me this creativity to put these different flavors together that you might not see in a dish, specifically for what you’re drinking.”

The Ponces first walked into the bottle shop in October 2024, and Rachel said she just “had this feeling” that it was the one.

“As we walked in, maybe one minute in, I just feel her squeeze my arm, and I look at her, and she’s got the biggest smile on her face and watery eyes, and she says, ‘We’re getting this space,’” Eric Ponce told The Tribune.

Staviary, named after a mix between the classic stave of a wine barrel and aviary for their love of birds, will officially open at the end of this year, alongside Goshi’s Japanese dishes and pub-style bar.

Grub is still sometimes offered at the bottle shop while their brick-and-mortar establishments are still setting up. Staviary is hosting its pop-up Chef’s Lab over certain weekends at Paso Bottle Shop, experimenting with fusion dishes and what will be the definite menu for Staviary, including a prefix seven-course meal at the chef’s counter.

“Even the first pop-up we’ve done, the energy and the people in there supporting, I literally looked at my sous chef and started tearing up,” Ponce said. “It was like this big hug of the community coming out and supporting, seeing everyone drink our neighbors’ wines.”

Community is also seen inside Paso Bottle Shop’s center area, where colorful geometric tables of different sizes and heights allow for mingling between families and groups of people.

Pedals underneath the tables lift for easy access to transport and connect to one another, Lapp said.

“All the units have roll-up doors, so during the day you can have your own private experience in the unit, but then you have this more social experience in the center,” he said. “Now we are open to hosting different community events and groups and using it as much more of an entertaining space.”

The final units inside Paso Bottle Shop are set to be complete by the start of next year, including Staviary, Goshi and Cellar Fermentation, according to Lapp.

“As long as we had two restaurants in there, we could actually have the center space be this social, collaborative space where you go get wine, beer, food and come to the center and be able to share it and meet and so forth,” he said.

For more information

Paso Bottle Shop at 1102 Railroad St. is open from Thursday to Monday from noon to 8 p.m., and usually later on the weekends, Lapp said.

For more information about the bottle shop, visit its Instagram page.

This story was originally published July 22, 2025 at 5:00 AM.