As our flight taxis away from the gate at Philadelphia International my mind is racing ahead to what lies in store over the next month – three tours of discovery during Umbria’s fall harvest period and a week’s escape with our friends Pete and Nancy to Paris.  But despite the allure of the upcoming month it is impossible not to think on the past month and just shake my head. What a ride it has been.

It is now the first week of October, but as the first week of September came and went we were preparing to take the next step – a big step – in the journey that has been Bella Italia and what we now call Via Umbria.  For more than a year we have been planning and plotting the reopening of our retail store and expanding and transforming it into a retail experience, where we and our customers could truly live Via Umbria’s tagline of Discover – Savor – Share.  But this dream could not become reality without the right space and after a year of searching we had found it.  And as the second week of September broke we were spending time with lawyers and bankers and preachers working out the last details of how we not only could move into our new Georgetown, DC home but how we could take title too, freeing ourselves at last from the vicissitudes of that eight letter word – landlord.

September 10 marked the beginning of Via Umbra, two days prior to Bella Italia’s anniversary.  At 3pm, after a remarkably smooth settlement we arrived at 1525 Wisconsin Avenue with the keys to the front door and a whole lot of debt.  We emerged through the doorway of the historic Georgetown home and peered down its long, inviting emptiness, stepping along ancient timber floors, past a pair of fireplaces, surrounded by brick walls that have stood in this place for two, perhaps three centuries.  As daunting as the journey had been to that point and despite the risk we had taken on by biting off so much, this felt so right.  This was to be the place where we would realize our dreams over the next decade or more.

Work had already begun on some light renovation and buildout, and even as we stepped inside for the first time a crew was removing walls and priming areas for painting.  Over the next several days white walls became hued, reclaimed wood from old barns was measured and cut and installed as shelving, new lighting fixture transformed the dark emptiness.  A beautiful space was becoming our beautiful space.

Computers were purchased and electrical, phone and internet services installed, the latter proving to be particularly difficult as reliable high speed service is not readily available in our new environs.  Cabling proved to be a problem as well, one which was solved by an angel with Cat 5 who became known to us as simply H.  For three days he laid cable, planed wainscoating, installed switches and generally helped set the tone of friendly openness that was forming among our new team.

And what a team.  Led by our manager Golnaz Feiz, we had been collecting the personnel pieces of the jigsaw puzzle that would allow us to operate the first phase of our retail expansion – a holiday retail pop up shop – while preparing for and building a foundation for our post holiday expansion and rebirth as an Italian market.  And from the jump they proved to be diligent, dedicated and hardworking, eagerly gobbling up the culture and promise that we hope will define Via Umbria.

Supplemented by an army of fans, followers and customers from Bella Italia, the store began to take shape, particularly on moving day, a mere week after taking possession.  That morning our movers, Two Marines Moving initiated a tactical move with military precision that resulted in our entire stock of inventory being transported from our Maryland warehouse and our home to Georgetown.  I will never forget watching their two truck convoy pulling out of our alley as their commanding officer slapped the backside of the trucks to signal “move out” like a scene in Patton.

Inside our army of paid staff and volunteers sorted the hundreds of boxes and bundles of shrink-wrapped goods, positioning them near where they would eventually be displayed.  Two days later the process was repeated when our seaborne container, which had left Italy less than a month earlier stuffed with new purchases from our summer visit arrived.  Inside the container, surrounded by new ceramic art, foodstuffs, cookware and glassware was our crown jewel.  A blue three wheel Ape (ah-pay), a typical Italian farm vehicle that would take up residence in the emporio’s front window.  Only a week earlier our excitement over its arrival had been tempered somewhat when we realized it would not fit through the front door.  That Friday morning a team of carpenters were at work removing the entire front window and moments after it was unloaded the Ape was being hoisted through the opening and into its new home of foreign shores.

With a week to go before our grand opening, which had been announced to friends and picked up in the press any type of opening – grand or otherwise – appeared tenuous.  The store was ready  – gleaming with fresh paint and shelves longing to be put to use.  But there were now hundreds of boxes of merchandise, perhaps more than a thousand, that needed to be unpacked, checked in, entered into inventory, items priced and stickered.  And there was the issue with the stickers.  Our brand new inventory management system was just that, brand new.  Everything we wanted and needed to do was a learning experience.  How to enter goods into inventory.  How to print stickers.  Why the stickers were pricing everything at $0.  As time ticked down we were becoming increasingly nervous whether we would be able to display any merchandise at our grand opening.

A week of late nights and even earlier mornings – 18 hour days clocked in by the entire team enabled us to meet that challenge and as the week wore on our label printer could be heard humming and seen spitting out yards-long ribbons of barcoded price stickers.  These ribbons were hustled onto the sales floor where items were stickered and displays began to take shape.  And before we knew it, Saturday had arrived.

At 11:59 I unlocked the door and let in the first couple to shop at the new Via Umbria emporio.  They had no idea who we were or what Via Umbria was all about and we, too, struggled to explain it.  But within the first hour dozens of customers had arrived for the grand opening and with each arrival our confidence and ability to articulate our mission became stronger and more assured.  By the end of the first day we had repeated our story, our dreams and our gratitude to well over a hundred old friends and new ones.  We were, at last, open for business.

We look forward to seeing you soon in the new Via Umbria Emporio.  Drop by to experience our dream and to shop with us.  Where you shop and how you spend your money is at its core a form of voting.  If you believe in visionary, mission driven businesses like ours, we hope you’ll show your support so that together we can continue to Discover – Savor – Share.

Ci vediamo!

Bill and Suzy

Via Umbria Emporio is located at 1525 Wisconsin Avenue, NW in Washington, DC’s Georgetown neighborhood.  Our hours are Tuesday through Saturday 11am-7pm and Sundays noon-6pm.  Visit us online at www.viaumbria.com or call us at 202.333.3904.