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Veritas Studio Wines

Opening Hours
Today: 2–9pm
Wed:
2–9pm
Thurs:
2–9pm
Fri:
12–9pm
Sat:
12–9pm
Sun:
12–8pm
Mon:
2–9pm
Location
527 West 45th Street
Veritas Studio Wines 1 Wine Shops Hells Kitchen Midtown West

You may be familiar with wines organized by red, white or rosé — but what about bottles categorized as “Old Pals”, “Good Fellas”, or “BFFS” ? Welcome to Veritas Studio Wines, a small-but-mighty independent wine shop on a quiet block of W45th Street where you can embrace unexpected and unique flavors at affordable prices. 

The creative mind behind Veritas and its unique offerings is none other than longtime New Yorker Jeremy Kaplan, whose career began in marketing for Madison Square Garden. After years of working on campaigns for the Knicks and Rangers, Jeremy decided to pursue a lifelong interest in wine by jumping directly into the heart of the city’s hospitality industry. 

“I had a friend in the wine industry tell me that to get my foot in the door, I needed to work at the best restaurant I could,” said Jeremy. “At the time, the best restaurant I had worked for was Friendly’s!” he laughed. “Fast forward to 2008, I got the opportunity to work in a Michelin-starred restaurant in Tribeca called Bouley — for a year and a half or so, I worked for free, shadowing the sommelier,” he said. “Eventually, I just started being a ‘som’ — that was my first time tasting everything. You taste everything you open,” he noted. “I’d taste, I'd say, between 25 and 40 wines per shift, and probably 1500 to 2000 wines total in my time there. It was like going to a museum and being able to see the great pieces of art.” 

Having learned the ins and outs of fine dining, “white tablecloth” wines, Jeremy moved to the West Village’s late Bar Blanc, where he helped develop their beverage program to much critical acclaim. “I was very proud [of Bar Blanc], because the wine list got noticed in the Times and in New York Magazine,” said Jeremy. While he doesn’t hold an official sommelier certification, “I am blessed with a palate that allows me to taste a wine and say, ‘I think people would like this.’”

It was his innately intuitive palate that caught the attention of an investor —who in 2014 asked Jeremy to open up a new shop in what was previously a commercial studio space known as Veritas Studios (also known as the place where the famous “Mikey Likes It” commercial was filmed, Jeremy told us). Running Veritas gave Jeremy the opportunity to build his own wide-ranging program of wines — and to make them accessible to everyone from novices to seasoned vino vets. “Our categories are about using language that people are familiar with, making people feel comfortable — certainly embracing anybody who walks through the door,” said Jeremy. “We seem to do well with people who are curious — who are willing to take a risk on something they've never heard of.” 

More than anything, he looks forward to guiding patrons through their own wine education, he told us. “​​I'm involved with our customers’ most important decision of the day,” said Jeremy. “They’re picking the wine that they're going to go home with to accompany their dinner, the wine that they're going to use to smooth things over with their spouse, the wine that they're going to go celebrate with — or maybe bury their sorrows in,” he added. “This is the last stop many people make before they go home — and it's a nice thing.” 

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Veritas Studio Wines 1 Wine Shops Hells Kitchen Midtown West
Veritas Studio Wines 2 Wine Shops Hells Kitchen Midtown West
Veritas Studio Wines 3 Wine Shops Hells Kitchen Midtown West
Veritas Studio Wines 4 Wine Shops Hells Kitchen Midtown West
Veritas Studio Wines 5 Wine Shops Hells Kitchen Midtown West

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