PHOTOGRAPHY BY ANNE HAMERSKY Corner
Mike Politz (left), owner of D&M Liquors, seen in front of his store with his son Kyle. The family-run store is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.
D&M Liquors is a small, dynamic store that combines family business with a great drinks selection, particularly notable spirits and sparkling wines.
By Liza B. Zimmerman San Francisco's M WINE SHOP
ike Politz was raised in the drinks business. In elementary school he stood on milk cartons to dust bottles in his family's wine store. It was a good way to pick up some extra cash and twenty- five cents an hour seemed like pretty good money to an eight-year-old at the time. His parents are now retired, but in their defense he notes that if "the seal is on a bottle of wine, you can be any age to sell it." His father Joe owned the legendary Joe's Ice Cream shop around the corner and his grandfather originally ran the ice cream shop before him. One of his father's other claims to fame was inventing bubble gum ice cream at the shop.
Politz has the distinction of being a third-gener- ation San Franciscan in a relatively migratory town. All the decades of hard work have paid off, as D&M Liquors is about to celebrate its 50th anniversary next year. And Politz's son Kyle might just be showing interest in taking over the family business. Politz jokes that, given his family's history in the business, D&M could stand for "Dad and Mike," or "Dad and Mom." He notes that, "As much as we are a special- ty store, we are also still a neighborhood liquor store."
Beverage Dynamics • www.beveragedynamics.com • September/October 2012 • 37
