Peacock Wine & Book Bar [Jan 2023]

Since Bacon, Eggs, and Toast was such a blast to write about a couple of weeks ago, I thought I’d keep the momentum going!! Eggs had been talking about this wine bar near her in Gilbert where she had taken several classes to create different and really cool things. Even though she has always invited me to join her, nothing really piqued my interest until the cheese-making class came around! Cheese… wine's best friend, so… we grabbed Toast to get our cheese on!! LOL!! I also invited my sweet friend Hannah, and Eggs brought another new [to me] friend, Nikki.

As a book and wine lover, I thought this place was a totally awesome concept!! Tracy Wallace first opened the Peacock Wine Bar in August of 2019. She named it with the help of her husband, Rich. When she was trying to come up with what to call her wine bar, he asked her what her two most favorite things were… she answered without hesitation, peacocks and wine [hey, no judgment here], and Peacock Wine Bar came into existence. Then in 2023, Tracy partnered with a local book shop and transformed the place into the Peacock Wine & Book Bar. They offered different classes throughout the year, and this cheese-making class was SO MUCH FUN! We were ready!

If I’m totally honest, I could be sitting in my car in a parking lot with Bacon and Toast, and we’d still have a total blast. [and yes, we have done that... Haha!!] This class was a “how to” make Brie cheese, which just so happens to be one of our favorite cheeses!! We were all assigned to the same table that was littered with a lot of equipment at our disposal. Everything we needed to make our delicious brie at our fingertips sitting on the table. [and I think our table was the rowdiest, LOL!!] There was also the the all-important instruction sheet that our instructor went over with us before we got started. You can see below that we paid very close attention!!

Remember last time that I wrote about Eggs and Toast that I mentioned you never really know what Eggs is going to come up with from her bag for us to accessorize with? Haha!! Please see the photo above and our awesome and very bougie glasses!! During one "phase" of waiting for our cheese to firm up, [below] we were served an amazing little cheese plate with samples of wine for pairing. Then Eggs brought us out another little surprise from her magic bag [seen two photos down] for us to chill out with as we were drinking our wine!! LMAO!! From left, Hannah, Bacon, Eggs, Toast, and Nikki.

There were a lot of take-home instructions for this cheese: turning it, letting it drain, wrapping it in special cheese cloth… ongoing for about 3 weeks until it was “mature” enough to eat. Ugh, it almost felt like when you pretended an egg was a baby and you had to keep it "alive" back in high school!! Haha!! We all kept in touch about our cheese over the weeks to report our progress and maybe remind each other when to preform the next step. I remember thinking it tasted okay, but not nearly as good as all the work we put into it!! Haha, but the memories we created are priceless!!

It wasn’t too long after our class that Eggs alerted us to an accident that happened at the Peacock Wine & Book Bar. A Toyota Camry had crashed into the front window of the wine bar. After the investigation, it was reported that the driver was parking in a spot and put her foot on the gas by mistake instead of the brakes. She hopped the curb and crashed right into the building!! Tracy and a few of her staff members were there when it happened; they heard squealing and a crash and then saw a car sitting in the middle of the bar area. Thankfully, no one was hurt, but the damage had been done.  

Tracy tried to keep the Peacock Wine & Book Bar open, but after the accident, there was just too much damage. The cost of continuing business was too great, and sadly they ended up closing. Awwww... check out our cute little brie cheeses above!! I now have a newfound respect for cheese when I'm eating it and all the time and effort that goes into making it!

Okay, so you guys know how much I have always loved my puppies, when I found this new wine bar named The Terrier I simply had to go see this bar and hopefully meet the pup it was named after!! Come back next week to learn more!!

Cheers to you my wine loving friends, and TTFN!!