Chloe’s Charcuterie & Wine is bringing an elevated tasting and snacking experience to the former Provisions Cafe in Ridgway.

Owner Holly Kintz was volunteering at the Sherbino Theater down the street when she started seriously considering making something of the empty space.

By the end of that shift in September she wrote down the phone number on the for-rent sign. Once in contact with owner Dana Ivers, she paid her $1,000 to take the sign out of the window before she left for a month-long trip to the Pacific Northwest.

After a trip of visiting friends and every wine bar she could find, she had refined her concept for the space and started rolling out her plans.

Kintz made 2024 a bucket list year after being diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer at the end of 2023. She has held all sorts of jobs, but spent the majority of her career in the restaurant and bar industry. Opening her own place had been a dream of hers for 10-15 years.

She had found the perfect place and so decided to jump on a niche she felt was missing in Ridgway. She imagines Chloe’s being both the spot for serious wine connoisseurs and a summer watering hole for hikers and recreationalists after a long day.

After her illness impaired her mobility and balance, she decided to have her new puppy, Chloe, trained as a service dog.

By her side ever since, the bar’s namesake supported Kintz as she’s gotten stronger with medicine, and is a big reason she gathered the confidence to open the bar.

Kintz built the majority of her food and beverage career in Las Vegas, Nevada, but returned to Montrose, where she grew up, about six years ago.

Wine has always been her favorite part of the industry, and though she studied for the sommelier exam, she stopped just short of taking it.

But she considers wine a lifelong practice, and is excited for the bar to serve as a place for those with all degrees of knowledge to share in the experience and explore.

She’ll encourage this by serving wine by the ounce, offering two-, four- and six-ounce pours. Half and full bottles will also be available.

She said she hopes to have 36 rotating varieties which can be paired with a charcuterie menu that is also ever-shifting with the seasons. All her employees will be fully versed in the bar’s “wine bible,” which she will keep a copy of behind the bar.

There will be a range of accessible to sophisticated options or “a wine to match an occasion,” she said.

Kintz invested in a special spout-sealing system to keep half-full bottles fresh and allow her to serve the broad variety in smaller quantities.

“That’s the part that really creates a wine bar,” she said.

She plans to serve flights of wine — to allow people to sample different groupings — and even offer a wine club membership which will come with perks each month. She also imagines hosting events featuring things like local wineries.

She is aiming for a quiet launch in February, with a grand opening in May at 616 Clinton St. in Ridgway.

Lia Salvatierra is a journalist with Report for America, a service program that helps boost underserved areas with more reporting resources.