By Sandy Meyer
The holidays are fast approaching and it’s always good to have favorite spirits and wines in stock for all your entertaining. AJ’s Fine Wine & Liquors can help make sure you please all your guests with the best flavors of the holidays and every day.Ajay Jambhekar of Valrico and his wife Geeta, the owners of AJ’s Fine Wine & Liquors, opened the establishment ten years ago in November 2003 in the Publix Plaza on Lithia-Pinecrest Rd. After 25 years as an accountant in the corporate world, Jambhekar knew it was time for a change and decided to open the store after a friend offered him the opportunity.
Since then, he has turned the store into a successful business, taking his excellent work ethics and putting them into his store.“I wanted to do something different. I wanted to understand the product, learn the product, read about the product and absorb it so I could be informative to the customer,” Jambhekar said. He decided if he was going to change careers, he would learn all he could about the product he was supplying to his customers and be sure that he gave them all of the options he could. AJ’s also offers a bar in the back of the store where customers can purchase their favorite drink and sit in a quiet place to enjoy it, including an outdoor patio area.
Two Fridays a month the store offers taste testing of popular liquors to allow consumers to try something new before buying. Check out its Facebook page for exact dates at AJ’s Fine Wine & Liquors. For those novice mixologists, Jambhekar has recently added a Virtual Bartender in the store, which will give customers any drink recipe they need to print off or send to their email. Customers can then take the recipe and purchase the ingredients right at the store.AJ’s celebrates its 10 year anniversary this month with a store celebration planned sometime in January or February.
They are located at 3443 Lithia Pinecrest Rd. in Valrico. Hours are Monday – Saturday, 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. and Sunday 10 a.m. until 8 p.m.
