Meet the Mom: Emily Basser
Name: Emily Basser
Where did you grow up: New Rochelle, NY
Town you live in now: Parkland
Why you love living there: Parkland is such an amazing place to raise kids. My family loves going to all the city activities such as the farmer’s market, food truck events, and our favorite, the Parkland fair. We also love to take advantage of the activities and events at our library.
Tell me about your kids: Alexa – 11, Ryan – 9
Favorite things to do with the kids locally: We love to be outside, so our favorite thing to do is go to the beach! We also love animals, so we enjoy exploring places like Butterfly World and Flamingo Gardens.
What’s your ‘day job’? How did you get started with it?
I own Basser’s Fine Wine & Craft Beer. 6240 Coral Ridge Drive, Coral Springs, 33076 #109
In a former life I was a first grade teacher. My husband has been in the wine industry for his whole career and we always talked about opening our own shop. In April 2019 a spot opened up and we jumped on it. With opening the store, I stopped teaching so I could focus on our business. I have found a new passion and I love being in our store and talking to customers and finding them something new to enjoy. When we started the business we wanted a place where people could come and relax, join in wine or beer tastings. We offered free beer tastings every Friday and free wine tastings every Saturday. We have a cellar where you can have a private event. During our free tastings our kids are back there and children of our customers are free to join them so their parents are freed up to taste and shop. We can’t wait for the world to get back to normal so we can have these again. It was such a great way for the community to gather.
What is your best parenting advice. Lay it on us. Everything, good or bad, is just a phase. Baby not sleeping? Soon he/she will. Toddler being super loving? Soon that will change too. So if it’s a bad phase, know it’s going to end soon. And if it’s a good phase, eat it up because that will change soon too!
What do you do for self care? I run and do yoga! I’ve run several half marathons. I find running to be the best way for me to think up new ideas for our family or our business.
Anything else you want to share? We hear from first time customers that they were intimidated to come in because they thought we would be overpriced or only have collectable wines. That is so far from our concept. We pride ourselves on having the lowest prices in south Florida, with a huge variety of selection and wonderful customer service. We want everyone to feel as if they’re coming into our home; to know we are giving them high quality wines and beers and a low cost to them. We are a family business. Glenn and I run the store and we put the kids to work too doing inventory, sweeping, or putting up labels.