By Isaiah Frizzell
The first thing you feel in Roots Wine Bar is the ambiance. High ceilings, a comfy front dining room, and a long bar stretching toward a clean, open kitchen. Roots has an immediate warmth through humble yet sophisticated charm. As it’s also a bottle shop you can find any varietal from $20 to $300. Spots like this are what make a town shine.
Rian Salvatierra, the proprietor of Roots is a two-time local. She and her husband moved to Sun Valley in 2008, staying until 2014, when the wine business swept them back to Napa, Calif. They returned to the Valley in 2020 just in time for the pandemic.
Salvatierra has dealt in wine for 25 years and with her sommelier husband, she said opening a shop was a given despite the challenges. “We had a booklet full of ideas, we knew what we wanted to do with the concept, so it was just a matter of finding the place. “At the time, the wine bars here had closed. And so, we were like, let’s do it.”
Salvatierra speaks with certainty, clearly living her passion.
Work – Life Balance
“We really try to balance what we’re doing here with family life,” Salvatierra said. “Being your own boss kind of allows that a little bit, and so we entertain a lot. We give friends dinner parties and things like that.”
Undoubtedly with choice bottles of vino?
“Oh yeah,” Salvatierra said. “Plus most of our friends are in the industry or adjacent to the industry. So, there’s a lot of work while we’re playing. I love snowshoeing and hiking. We go camping a lot in the summer, all the things. I just don’t do downhill skiing. I have, like, an irrational fear of heights and going fast, so it just doesn’t work. But I love going and watching my kids ski, which is fun and I’m a really good après skier. I’m a professional après skier.”
“We don’t take reservations, so if you have six to eight people and you really want to sit down for a while, I would come before five p.m.”
Roots is a certified leisure go-to with a great menu of comestibles and a bottle for any occasion. If you’re in the shop, they offer 20 percent off of bottles to go.
