Meet Randy Fisher | Owner and operator of Five Vines Wine Bar

We had the good fortune of connecting with Randy Fisher and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Randy, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
My wife and I wanted to create something together that leveraged our experience and our passion while being centered on our family. My wife had worked in the restaurant and special events industry for 20+ years and I had brewed beer and studied wine for over 20 years as well, so the idea was to create a wine bar concept that would leverage our strengths and interests.

It was initially considered a hobby business or passion project with no real intention of growing beyond being a comfortable, casual community-based wine bar. Our hope was that we could create something that the public liked enough to keep the doors open so that we could work with each other and our kids. The name “Five Vines Wine Bar” is a reference to me, my wife and our three sons and the logo is a grape vine with five shoots/vines representing each of us.

We were committed to following the interests of our customers and slowly evolved and grew our business to include an outdoor patio, an upstairs event space, an award-winning food menu and many other customer-focused offerings.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
I worked for 36 years in the healthcare industry with more than 33 years being in one company. I started as a field engineer and worked my way up into sales, management and eventually a national leadership role. I retired 3 years ago, but the majority of my life was spent working for this one company, which inevitably molded my professional personality and influenced much of my personal life as well.

I feel fortunate that I worked for a company that offered so much opportunity for training and growth. Much of the professional training that I received not only benefited my career, but also provided valuable benefits for my personal life as well.

These 33 years were filled with more tough customers, impossible challenges, ridiculous goals and corporate hurdles than I could even remember, but I know that living through those situations and finding success is what I value the most. It was horrible in the moment and there were many times that I couldn’t see the solution, but it was the struggle that created the personal growth and invaluable skills that continue to help me today.

Opening a small business that is family-owned and operated presents many challenges. The professional experiences that I had combined with that of my wife having worked in hospitality for over 20 years created the foundation that prepared us to face the challenges of opening a small business. Let me be clear…..opening a small business is MUCH harder than a corporate job in many ways, but I couldn’t have done it without the skills and experience I gained through my corporate career.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
San Juan Capistrano is built around the Mission, so a visit to the mission is critical to understanding the history and importance of our little town. It’s also very interesting and fun!

Walking around the historic downtown that surrounds the mission will lead you to more of the cool things that San Juan Capistrano has to offer. Directly across the street is the Capistrano Trading Post, which is a great place for exploring Native American jewelry, art and other items from local artists.

If you like hunting for antiques, one of the best places to look is the Old Barn Antique Mall just a block down the street. It is a massive collection of incredible finds if you are willing to do a little digging! 🙂

Right next to the Old Barn is a San Juan Capistrano icon called The Swallows Inn! It is everything you would ever want in the perfect dive bar including great live music, line dancing, Karaoke, good drinks and great people watching! You may want to save this one for the last stop of the day!

If you like good food, San Juan Capistrano has become a must-visit culinary stop. You should always make time to see our location, Five Vines Wine Bar! We have over 65 wines to choose from coming from small, family-owned wineries who are producing some of the best wine in the world! Even though we are called a wine bar, you must try our food as we have been voted the best restaurant in San Juan Capistrano two years in a row and best chef three years in a row!

Beyond Five Vines, there is everything from classic Italian cuisine with Caio Pasta, the best Mexican food with El Maguey and El Adobe, fancy American cuisine with Bloom, Mediterranean with Mayfield and much, much more!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
We built a family business to spend more time with our family and become part of the San Juan Capistrano Community. The beauty of this 13 year “experiment” with my family is that we have weathered the bad times, celebrated the good times and experienced incredible personal and professional growth TOGETHER!

In addition, this journey has included so many incredible employees along the way who we have welcomed into our family and they have rewarded us with hard work and invaluable support that enabled the evolution of our business. Most notably, our Executive Chef, Omar Ramirez, completely changed the complexion and direction of our business when he joined us in 2018. We were a bar with food before he arrived and we are now an award-winning restaurant with great wine! His humble demeanor and gracious personality was a great addition to our family and his expertise as a chef was a critical element to the growth of our business.

Finally, we would not be here without the incredible support of our loyal customers who welcomed us into this community and carried us through the ups and downs while always holding us to the standards that we promise to them. A huge shoutout to the family, friends, staff and customers who have contributed to our success!

Website: https://www.fivevineswinebar.com

Instagram: @fivevineswinebar

Facebook: @fivevineswinebar

Yelp: fivevineswinebar