The Grape Escape wine bar in downtown Redding is the type of casual hangout where new customers aren’t strangers for long.
Owners Adam Browning and Kayla Hatch have created a welcoming atmosphere for wine lovers since they took over the business in May 2020 at the corner of South and Pine streets.
Nicknamed The Grape, it’s an award-winning community bar and spot to have some food to go along with glasses of full-bodied cabernet sauvignon, a crisp pinot grigio and more drink choices.
“A lot of people come in and say it’s kind of like Redding’s little Cheers bar,” Browning said.
“It’s just a place where you’re greeted at the door (with), ‘Hey, how you doing?’ Maybe a hug and a handshake. And pretty much by the time you leave here, you’re going to know somebody,” he added.
“Come as strangers, leave as friends,” is how Hatch describes the experience.
The couple say they get a lot of travelers, many of whom say they plan to return the next time they’re in town.
“They’re like, ‘We gotta come back in here,’” Browning said.
The Grape offers regional wines
The Grape is only open three evenings a week — Thursday, Friday and Saturday — from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. and seats about 40 inside and another 40 more on the back patio.
Its intimate atmosphere makes it a popular spot for a date night. Many customers will drop by before attending shows at the nearby Cascade Theatre or on their way to a movie.
Often the bar will host its own live music — indoors on hot days and outdoors when it’s cooler.
Browning said that at any given time, they’ll have 60 to 70 different choices of bottles of wine. The Grape also offers flights so customers can sample unfamiliar varieties.
“We always make sure people like what they’re drinking,” Browning said.
“If not, we’ll pour you something else,” Hatch added.
They focus on wines from around Northern California but they also bring in bottles from wineries stretching from Southern Oregon down to Paso Robles.
The couple will make trips two or three times a month to personally bring bottles back for their customers.
“We do a bunch of Sonoma wines, Tobin James (from Paso Robles), Wilson (of Healdsburg),” Browning said.
“We do a lot of Hatcher, Macchia, Lodi stuff … We love to do wines that nobody potentially has,” he said.
“Like, you can’t go to Safeway and get any of these.” Hatch said.
One appeal of The Grape is its wine club, where members can get a 20 percent discount on bottles and also receive a 10 percent discount when they come in. Another member feature is exclusive pours.
Squeeze the most out of your visit to Grape Escape
The Grape is more than wine bar because other drinks are available.
Browning and Hatch say they like to feature local beverages such as a blonde ale from the Fresh Beer Co. made by local brewers Abe and Katy Spencer. The Grape carries Hexagenia from Fall River and Etna Brewery’s Blackberry Blonde wheat ale, along with ciders and seltzers with non-alcoholic options such as Fall River’s Dry Fly.
The food menu comes courtesy of Jim Farmer of Farmers Spread.
Farmer, a wine club veteran, says he offers “small plates, appetizers, flatbread pizzas and finger food. …. Light fare that people can have while they’re enjoying their wine.”
Farmer is a retired construction worker who was raised two blocks from The Grape. He says cooking has been a hobby of his since childhood.
His popular items are the margarita-style and chicken pesto pizzas.
His melon skewers with prosciutto wrapped around cantaloupe are also good sellers.
For dessert, Farmer bakes a lemon cake that his grandmother used to make in New Mexico, appropriately named Mam-Maws Lemon Cake.
“That’s pretty popular. It’s a nice light cake for people to enjoy – a Southern favorite,” he said.
Wine bar a side gig
Browning and Hatch both have jobs in health care and acquired The Grape as a side gig not long after the Covid-19 pandemic hit.
“We really wanted to do something fun and exciting, and health care was really rough during COVID,” Browning said. “We were just kind of starting our relationship and we wanted to do something where we could see people’s faces and smiles. We didn’t want to see masks.”
They’ve built the business’s popularity to where they won the Record Searchlight’s Best of the North State award for 2025 as Best Wine Bar.
“We have a great following. We have lots of loyal customers,” Browning said.
Fun times at Grape Escape
The couple enjoy putting on special events just for fun.
They’ve hosted activities such as paint night, a wig night and music bingo.
They’ll hold a New York New Year’s where they’ll celebrate with a New Year’s champagne toast at 9 p.m. so revelers can go elsewhere afterward for the official midnight celebration.
Browning’s and Hatch’s love of wines extend to a mobile wine bar that they’ll bring to weddings, birthdays, retirement parties and other functions to serve wine, beer, ciders and seltzers.
The mobile bar made appearances this year at the recent Taste of Redding and Roses and Rust Marketplace in Anderson.
Coming from the health-care field, Browning and Hatch didn’t have experience running a wine bar. They knew the previous owners as well as the building’s landlord. But their love of vino – and creating a community hub – has carried them through.
“Well, we drink a lot of wine,” Hatch said.
“That was the inspiration.” Browning said.
If you go: The Grape Escape
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: ‘Redding’s little Cheers bar.’ Wine down at Grape Escape
Reporting by Mike Chapman, Special to the Record Searchlight / Redding Record Searchlight
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By Mike Chapman, Special to the Record Searchlight | USA TODAY Network
