A house with everything, including a wine cellar

on May 26, 2013 at 12:25 PM, updated May 26, 2013 at 4:26 PM
The house had to have bedrooms for their sons, space for a nursery, a suite for the couple, and a second master suite for Briand's mother-in-law.

Joe Briand and his family had a long list of must-haves when they went shopping for their new home. It had to have a master suite for Briand and his wife, Shannon Sharpe Briand. It had to have two bedrooms, one for each of their sons (Luke, 5, and Patrick, 21 months). It had to have a space that could be converted into a nursery for the baby girl they are expecting in July, and it had to have a second master suite (downstairs) for Briand's mother-in-law, Pat Sharpe.

Oh, and don't forget about the wine cellar - that, too, was a must have.

"We didn't really expect to find a house that already had a cellar," Briand said, who has worked in the restaurant business locally, including as the sommelier then general manager of Herbsaint. "But I wanted to at least have a space that we could turn into a wine room."

The odds of filling every need were slim (a swimming pool would have been nice, too, Briand said), but because Shannon Sharpe Briand is a Realtor with Sharpe Realty, the family hit the jackpot. They found the right house in Lakeview on Marshall Foch and it had been the home of an aspiring music producer.

"It was already renovated downstairs, where Pat's suite and Luke's bedrooms are located," said Briand. "Upstairs there was another master suite and a bedroom for Patrick. There was a tiny kitchen up there and we removed it so we could convert the space into a nursery. It has a pool, but what really sold us on the place was the garage."

Not the garage per se, but what the previous owner had done with it.

"He had converted half of it for his music producing business, Stone Ground Records, so there was a sound room and a studio. I knew right away that the sound room would be perfect for the wine cellar and the studio for a tasting room," Briand said.

The family moved into the house just six weeks ago (after six weeks spent renovating the upstairs), but already the wine storage room and tasting space have been outfitted and handsomely appointed.

"The sound proofing that was installed - there are four layers of Sheetrock - made for great insulation," Briand said. "The space is confined so it's easy to control the temperature and keep it at 56 degrees. It has a double set of doors - again for sound dampening - which make it more or less a sealed environment."

Wooden wine racks that Briand assembled himself line the intimate space and hold the 400 or so bottles that he has collected. Briand has arranged wines by region and has designated a rack by the door as a selection of wines "okay to drink now."

"It's my job to keep that rack filled, or else I'll get a call from Shannon asking which of the other wines she can open for friends who stop by unexpectedly," he said. "If I don't want the ones I have laid away to be opened, then I have to keep the 'drink now' rack filled."

Briand has installed a tasting room where the studio used to be. Maps of various French wine regions hang on the walls, especially maps of Burgundy, Briand's favorite area. He stores glassware in the space and bookcases hold a library of tomes about wine. There is a counter with stools where friends can sit and sip, while Briand opens and pours wine on an antique desk, complemented by contemporary leather and chrome sling chairs.

"You can't hear anything in here, so it can be a sort of parents' safe room if the kids get too rambunctious and we need Pat to help out for a while," he said. "The space is so sound proof that Shannon has to call me on my cell from the kitchen if she needs me because I can't hear her hollering for me."

Elsewhere in the house, it's a different story. The boys may be watching TV in the living room, which shares a big open space with the dining nook and kitchen, or playing with a wagon in the front yard. Eloise, the family's 15 year old dog, can be found following the boys or Joe Briand around. Pat Sharpe may be continuing the unpacking tasks or folding laundry while keeping a watchful eye on the boys. Something is going on everywhere, all in a carefully orchestrated state of controlled chaos.

Briand said that the boys adore one feature abut their new home more than all others: It's the bookcase on hinges that conceals the stairway to the second floor. Isn't a disappearing secret passageway every child's dream?

The couple has almost completed work upstairs, after adding hardwood floors, installing carpet on the steps, making casings around doors, removing the kitchenette, choosing new light fixtures, and painting. The hall at the top of the stairs leads to the master bedroom, a pleasing space painted blue with windows on two sides to bring in light. A nook in the hallway provides just enough space for a work area that serves as Sharpe Briand's home office.

When Briand isn't working on the house or completing the nursery, he's spending time with his brother-in-law, Warren Chapoton, and Chapoton's business partner, Neal Swidler, to get ready for the grand opening of "The Lucky Rooster." a new restaurant in the CBD on Baronne Street near the Civic Theatre. Chapoton owns Juan's Flying Burrito and Slice Pizzeria and plans for the Rooster to have an Asian menu. Swidler, formerly the chef de cuisine at Emeril's Delmonico and NOLA and adept at creating and preparing Asian dishes, will head up the kitchen. Briand will serve as general manager.

Having learned about wines on the job, Briand is enthusiastic about sharing what he knows with others and can explain in simple terms the difference between a premier cru, a grand cru and a village level wine. Although it sounds like a dream job to "have to" taste hundreds of wines per week at work as he did when he was wine director at Herbsaint, Briand admitted that the task can sometimes be more demanding than fun.

"After you have tasted about 40 or 50 wines at a time, you definitely suffer from a little palate fatigue," he said.