Dreck Girl

In November we stated in the paper version of Unfair Park that Tony's Wine Warehouse & Restaurant was essentially a sucker farm where customers were consistently snookered into buying over-the-hill wines at over-the-top prices. Time will tell who sucks now. Tony's owner Michel Monzain unloaded the two-decades old warehouse and...

By Robert Wilonsky

June 20, 2006

[
        {
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Inline Content - Mobile Display Size",
          "component": "18855504",
          "insertPoint": "2",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
        },{
          "name": "Editor Picks",
          "component": "17105533",
          "insertPoint": "4",
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18349797",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - MediumRectangle - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17105532",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 8,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Inline Links",
          "component": "18349797",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        },{
          "name": "Air - Leaderboard Tower - Combo - Inline Content",
          "component": "17105535",
          "insertPoint": "8th",
          "startingPoint": 12,
          "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
          "maxInsertions": 25
        }
      ]

In November we stated in the paper version of Unfair Park that Tony's Wine Warehouse & Restaurant was essentially a sucker farm where customers were consistently snookered into buying over-the-hill wines at over-the-top prices. Time will tell who sucks now. Tony's owner Michel Monzain unloaded the two-decades old warehouse and "gourmet" restaurant last month to Deep Ellum nightclubber Paul DiBiase (Club Indigo). "Of course we slashed the prices about 90 percent across the board because they were kind of high on a lot of wines," says DiBiase, who plans on installing a wine bar and revamping the restaurant. "We cleared out a lot of the old bad wines."

And how. DiBiase says he dumped much of the inventory (700 cases) at a buck a case, pawning it off as cooking wine. He trashed some and sold the barely drinkable chucks at two bucks a bottle. "We had over 40,000 cases in here," he says. How'd DiBiase wander into the Tony hole? He answered an ad Monzain was running for a sales person and decided he'd rather buy than swill. --Mark Stuertz

KEEP THE OBSERVER FREE... Since we started the Dallas Observer, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Dallas, and we'd like to keep it that way. Your membership allows us to continue offering readers access to our incisive coverage of local news, food, and culture with no paywalls. You can support us by joining as a member for as little as $1.