Cheri Guerdon spent 26 years as a Hamilton County teacher, but she always had a dream of opening her own business some day.
Guerdon said she subscribed to a franchise newsletter and was looking for something that was fairly easy but also interesting and new to the area. Then, she found the Virgola Wine Bar and took her dream one step further by becoming a franchise owner of the new wine-and-seafood bar set to celebrate its grand opening in downtown Chattanooga on Tuesday.
Virgola Wine Bar was founded in 2013 by New York City restaurateur Joseph Marazzo who then decided to franchise the idea out, which proved to fairly easy as the Italian wine bar has a gourmet cold kitchen and serves items like fresh, raw oysters, ceviche, crudo and caviar as well as salads and other seafood platters.
Started in Greenwich, N.Y., Virgola – pronounced like “veer-guhla” – now has locations across the country in cities such as Ormond Beach, Fla. and Asheville, N.C with more opening soon.
“I just fell in love with it,” Guerdon said about the bar.