Rodman’s
“We’re not snooty about wine,” says Roy Rodman, the 56-year-old owner of Rodman’s. “The trick is finding reasonably priced wines that taste fabulous, that you can get excited about. That’s what we try to do.”
The eclectic discount wine store/pharmacy/international foods/housewares and tchotchke shop offers more than 3,000 wines to choose from in Friendship Heights. Perhaps that’s why “we have some people who spend hours there,” says Ron Brenner, manager of operations.
Roy’s father, Leonard, started a combination liquor store and pharmacy at 18th and G streets NW with a partner in the 1950s. The partners separated, and Rodman retained the liquor part of the operation, later opening his own pharmacy in the 5300 block of Wisconsin Avenue NW.
After a fire in 1965, the drugstore moved to its current location, and annexed adjacent space. It wasn’t until the mid-’70s, though, that Rodman’s started carrying beer and wine.
Forty years later, Rodman’s is still going strong—with additional locations in Wheaton and Kensington—and it recently started selling wine online.
5100 Wisconsin Ave. NW, D.C., 202 363-3466; 4301 Randolph Road (at Veirs Mill), Wheaton, 301-946-3100; White Flint Plaza, 5148 Nicholson Lane, Kensington, 301-881-6253; www.rodmans.com
